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Rails and Merb Merge

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Re: Rails and Merb Merge

#3

Post by jon_dahl »

Wow, big news.

I'm mixed on this. One of the strengths of Rails was that it was the dominant Ruby web programming framework. This meant that virtually the entire community was behind Rails when it came to web app development - unlike some other languages, which have several frameworks competing for the crown. But Merb has recently started to give Rails a run for its money. Fortunately, the learning curve between Merb and Rails is relatively small.

So on the one hand, it's great that the Ruby community won't splinter between two competing frameworks.

But on the other hand, Merb was really creative and innovative, and I'd hate to see that innovation slow down as it becomes the Establishment.

Re: Rails and Merb Merge

#4

Post by mdemare »

Impressive! How often do you hear about two open-source projects merging? Forking is much more common. I can't even recollect other instances of merging.

Best of luck to the two teams with making it work!

Re: Rails and Merb Merge

#6

Post by jm4 »

mdemare wrote: post #4

Impressive! How often do you hear about two open-source projects merging? Forking is much more common. I can't even recollect other instances of merging. Best of luck to the two teams with making it work!

Compiz and Beryl. Beryl forked from Compiz and, if I remember correctly, relations were very sour between the two projects. Several months later they merged into Compiz Fusion.

Re: Rails and Merb Merge

#7

Post by mechanical_fish »

jon_dahl wrote: post #3

Wow, big news. I'm mixed on this. One of the strengths of Rails was that it was the dominant Ruby web programming framework. This meant that virtually the entire community was behind Rails when it came to web app development - unlike some other languages, which have several frameworks competing for the crown. But Merb has recently started to give Rails a run for its money. Fortunately, the learning curve between Merb…

Merb was really creative and innovative, and I'd hate to see that innovation slow down as it becomes the Establishment.

All innovations either become Establishment or remain obscure. I'm perfectly happy to see Merb go Establishment. If it doesn't work out... it's not as if the project won't be forked again.

Innovation won't stop. It will just have a different name and perhaps some different principals.

Re: Rails and Merb Merge

#9

Post by Locke »

Wow, I almost wish it were April Fools Day...

For someone who loves Merb and had decided to leave Rails behind (as much as possible), I have very mixed feelings about this. If this means Rails will start to feel more like Merb, fantastic! Otherwise?

I have a feeling it'll be a long while before I really know how to feel about this...

It'll be interesting to see how well this merger actually works in practice. It seems like when large companies merge the results are often underwhelming. Can a merger of large open source projects work? Will the different cultures clash?

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