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Things Rails Didn’t Innovate Not Invented Here

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Caleb Thompson

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We'll talk a bit about Rails

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But that's my elevator pitch

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The point:

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You can be more effective

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at your job

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by not innovating

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Rails didn’t really invent much at all.

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Its success is just a matter of execution and delivery

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Not that sort of execution.

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Great ideas brought together in new ways

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How we got here

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Ridgeway_mongwell.jpg/800px-Ridgeway_mongwell.jpg

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http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paul_blart_mall_cop/news/1791902/box_office_guru_wrapup_paul_blart_segways_ahead_of_the_competition/

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http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130501/sports-motor-sports/gallery/sportstars-and-their-four-wheeled-chariots

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http://www.bigredcollective.com/corduroy-road-1

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/AlaskaHWY.JPG

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2218396/The-modern-Stone-Age-familys-cutlery-Designers-recreate-ancient-tools-using-modern-materials-techniques.html

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http://huskertim27.deviantart.com/art/Minotaur-road-rage-260878537

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http://vimeo.com/43222290

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http://nplusonemag.tumblr.com/post/27919786178/neither-snow-nor-rain-nor-heat-nor-gloom-of-night

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http://seekingsantosha.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/all-roads-lead-to-rome/

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http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/01/the-greek-engineer-who-invented-the-steam-engine-2000-years-ago/

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http://mygermantravels.com/2010/12/frankfurt-trains-%E2%80%93-an-autobahn-alternative/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polar_Bear_-_Alaska.jpg

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http://compellingparade.com/2011/09/i-think-i-can/

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http://redfox.typepad.com/forest/2009/11/fashion-and-geography.html

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http://www.mrwallpaper.com/paris-eiffel-tower-wallpaper/

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http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop

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Haha, what?

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They weren’t reinventing the wheel

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Rails stole ideas

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...but which ones?

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What do we think of when we think Rails?

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Model View Controller was conceived as a general solution to the problem of developers controlling a large and complex data set.

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The essential purpose of MVC is to bridge the gap between the human user's mental model and the digital model that exists in the computer. Trygve Reenscrag XEROX PARC 1978-79

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Active Record The mapping between database tables and business logic in applications happens in

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An object that wraps a row in a database table or view, encapsulates the database access, and adds domain logic on that data. Martin Fowler Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (November 15, 2002)

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REpresentational State Transfer is a uniform interface for the web

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This idealized model of the interactions within an overall Web application… became the foundation for the modern Web architecture Roy T. Fielding and Richard N. Taylor Principled Design of the Modern Web Architecture (2002)

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Rails didn’t invent REST

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Convention over Configuration seeks to decrease the number of decisions that developers need to make, gaining simplicity, but not necessarily losing flexibility.

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defaults JavaBeans config files

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ERB provides an easy to use but powerful templating system for Ruby.

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Merb • asset pipeline • extension api • parameter whitelisting and blacklisting (strong_parameters) • ORM / JavaScript agnostic

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So why is Rails so popular?

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http://blogs.huongngo.com/dds/2010/11/15/monday-november-15/

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Execution is crazy important

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Presentation is key

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What can we learn from this?

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There is nothing wrong with taking other’s ideas

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Rails was built on the shoulders of giants

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That worked out pretty well

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Keep it simple.

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Strong, useful conventions make code easy to find and reduce mundane decision making

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Not designed by committee

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DHH still contributes

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Released in July of 2004

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Didn’t share commit rights until February of 2005

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strong_parameters

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turbolinks

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turbolinks (not a popular decision)

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While we may not always agree with him

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It doesn’t matter; he’s doing it anyways

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While this can be frustrating, you can’t argue with success

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What can we take from this?

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Take ideas

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I know you want to build.

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Interesting problems are fun to solve

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but they already have been

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Don't be seduced by the problem

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You are trying to get something out the door

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Read Code

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Know what you can steal.

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Buy for parity build for competitive advantage

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123 Main St Anytown, MA 12345

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123 Main St Apartment #5 Anytown, MA 12345

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123 Main St Basement Anytown, MA 12345

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c/o somebody else 123 Main St Anytown, MA 12345

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Bank of Canada 234 Laurier Avenue West Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0G9

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Crieff Hydro Strathearn House Ferntower Road Crieff PERTHSHIRE PH7 3LQ

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Caleb Thompson FNBA Downtown branch Downtown, Anchorage, Alaska

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Caleb Thompson FNBA Downtown branch Downtown, Anchorage, Alaska

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http://theunboundedspirit.com/holy-madness-and-insanity/

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Are you going to have a better idea than Fielding had about REST?

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maybe

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probably not

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Take ideas

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But don’t take it from me

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Thank you.

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Caleb Thompson @thompson_caleb calebthompson caleb@calebthompson.io

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