Not Invented Here: Things Rails Didn't Innovate

Rails is a mixture of design patterns, practices, and magic. In this talk, we'll explore how Rails embraces ideas from other frameworks and projects.

Active Record was born of Martin Fowler. MVC was the brainchild of Trygve Reenskaug. Rails 3 completely absorbed the Merb project, gaining modularity and extensibility that it previously lacked.

We all learn by standing on the shoulders of giants, even Rails. By understanding the inception of design patterns, we are more likely to be able to create ideas of our own. This helps us to not only grow in our own ability, but to help others improve as well.

Video of the talk at Scottish Ruby Conf: http://programme2014.scottishrubyconference.com/proposals/5/video

Transcript

1. Things Rails Didn’t Innovate Not Invented Here
2. Caleb Thompson
3. We'll talk a bit about Rails
4. But that's my elevator pitch
5. The point:
6. You can be more effective
7. at your job
8. by not innovating
9. Rails didn’t really invent much at all.
10. Its success is just a matter of execution and delivery
11. Not that sort of execution.
12. Great ideas brought together in new ways
13. How we got here
16. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Ridgeway_mongwell.jpg/800px-Ridgeway_mongwell.jpg
19. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paul_blart_mall_cop/news/1791902/box_office_guru_wrapup_paul_blart_segways_ahead_of_the_competition/
20. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130501/sports-motor-sports/gallery/sportstars-and-their-four-wheeled-chariots
21. http://www.bigredcollective.com/corduroy-road-1
22. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/AlaskaHWY.JPG
23. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2218396/The-modern-Stone-Age-familys-cutlery-Designers-recreate-ancient-tools-using-modern-materials-techniques.html
24. http://huskertim27.deviantart.com/art/Minotaur-road-rage-260878537
25. http://vimeo.com/43222290
26. http://nplusonemag.tumblr.com/post/27919786178/neither-snow-nor-rain-nor-heat-nor-gloom-of-night
28. http://seekingsantosha.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/all-roads-lead-to-rome/
29. http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/01/the-greek-engineer-who-invented-the-steam-engine-2000-years-ago/
30. http://mygermantravels.com/2010/12/frankfurt-trains-%E2%80%93-an-autobahn-alternative/
31. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polar_Bear_-_Alaska.jpg
32. http://compellingparade.com/2011/09/i-think-i-can/
33. http://redfox.typepad.com/forest/2009/11/fashion-and-geography.html
34. http://www.mrwallpaper.com/paris-eiffel-tower-wallpaper/
35. http://www.spacex.com/hyperloop
36. Haha, what?
37. They weren’t reinventing the wheel
38. Rails stole ideas
39. ...but which ones?
40. What do we think of when we think Rails?
41. Model View Controller was conceived as a general solution to the problem of developers controlling a large and complex data set.
42. 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
43. Active Record The mapping between database tables and business logic in applications happens in
44. 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)
45. REpresentational State Transfer is a uniform interface for the web
46. 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)
47. Rails didn’t invent REST
48. Convention over Configuration seeks to decrease the number of decisions that developers need to make, gaining simplicity, but not necessarily losing flexibility.
49. defaults JavaBeans config files
50. ERB provides an easy to use but powerful templating system for Ruby.
52. Merb • asset pipeline • extension api • parameter whitelisting and blacklisting (strong_parameters) • ORM / JavaScript agnostic
53. So why is Rails so popular?
54. http://blogs.huongngo.com/dds/2010/11/15/monday-november-15/
55. Execution is crazy important
56. Presentation is key
57. What can we learn from this?
58. There is nothing wrong with taking other’s ideas
59. Rails was built on the shoulders of giants
60. That worked out pretty well
61. Keep it simple.
62. Strong, useful conventions make code easy to find and reduce mundane decision making
63. Not designed by committee
64. DHH still contributes
65. Released in July of 2004
66. Didn’t share commit rights until February of 2005
67. strong_parameters
68. turbolinks
69. turbolinks (not a popular decision)
70. While we may not always agree with him
71. It doesn’t matter; he’s doing it anyways
72. While this can be frustrating, you can’t argue with success
74. What can we take from this?
75. Take ideas
76. I know you want to build.
77. Interesting problems are fun to solve
78. but they already have been
79. Don't be seduced by the problem
80. You are trying to get something out the door
81. Read Code
82. Know what you can steal.
83. Buy for parity build for competitive advantage
84. 123 Main St Anytown, MA 12345
85. 123 Main St Apartment #5 Anytown, MA 12345
86. 123 Main St Basement Anytown, MA 12345
87. c/o somebody else 123 Main St Anytown, MA 12345
88. Bank of Canada 234 Laurier Avenue West Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0G9
89. Crieff Hydro Strathearn House Ferntower Road Crieff PERTHSHIRE PH7 3LQ
90. Caleb Thompson FNBA Downtown branch Downtown, Anchorage, Alaska
91. Caleb Thompson FNBA Downtown branch Downtown, Anchorage, Alaska
92. http://theunboundedspirit.com/holy-madness-and-insanity/
93. Are you going to have a better idea than Fielding had about REST?
94. maybe
95. probably not
96. Take ideas
97. But don’t take it from me
99. Thank you.
100. Caleb Thompson @thompson_caleb calebthompson caleb@calebthompson.io
101. Don’t just sit there. Learn Something. learn.thoughtbot.com SCOTRUBY14 for 30% off a Learn Prime subscription