Has anyone out there had any experience with Ruby base rules or expert system engines? It seems like Ruby with be a good language for these kinds of applications.

Two that I have come across are:

 * Mycin: http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~laza/Software/Mycin/mycin.html: A Ruby implementation of the venerable mycin medical expert system shell.

* Rein: http://www.spice-of-life.net/rein/rein.html:  a simple rules engine built with Ruby.

Any others that you have some opinions about?

Russ Olsen

Folks,

I was fortunate to attend "Ruby on Rails" talk by Dave Thomas last
night and that was my first entry into Ruby world. Hope to try it out
sometime this week.

If anyone missed last night's presentation @NovaJUG, here are few
pointers. http://bhamidipaty.blogspot.com

Cheers,
Satish


--- In novarubygroup@yahoogroups.com, "russell59" <russolsen@g...>
wrote:
>
>
> Has anyone out there had any experience with Ruby base rules or
expert system engines? It seems like Ruby with be a good language for
these kinds of applications.
>
> Two that I have come across are:
>
>  * Mycin:
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~laza/Software/Mycin/mycin.html: A Ruby
implementation of the venerable mycin medical expert system shell.
>
> * Rein: http://www.spice-of-life.net/rein/rein.html:  a simple
rules engine built with Ruby.
>
> Any others that you have some opinions about?
>
> Russ Olsen
>

This is amazing - we already have 47 members in this group.

First, let me mention that this is a moderated list for new members
only - this is to prevent spammers from joining.  Your first message
or two may lag until it gets approved, but after that, no approval
will be necessary.

So, lets get some conversation starting!  LEt me ask a few questions:

1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?

2) Do we have anyone in the group willing to give a presentation or
two on some Ruby subjects?  I'm thinking Ruby basics, web services,
text processing, connecting to services like LDAP, etc, would all be
facinating topics.

3) Would people be interested in doing a group study of the PragProg
Pickaxe book and/or rails book?  I can provide some space to meet in
Reston if people are interested in picking a regular date/time.

-db

--- In novarubygroup@yahoogroups.com, "David Bock" <dbock@f...> wrote:
>
> This is amazing - we already have 47 members in this group.
>
> First, let me mention that this is a moderated list for new members
> only - this is to prevent spammers from joining.  Your first message
> or two may lag until it gets approved, but after that, no approval
> will be necessary.
>
> So, lets get some conversation starting!  LEt me ask a few questions:
>
> 1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
> curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?

my interest currently is purely curiosity.

>
> 2) Do we have anyone in the group willing to give a presentation or
> two on some Ruby subjects?  I'm thinking Ruby basics, web services,
> text processing, connecting to services like LDAP, etc, would all be
> facinating topics.
>
> 3) Would people be interested in doing a group study of the PragProg
> Pickaxe book and/or rails book?  I can provide some space to meet in
> Reston if people are interested in picking a regular date/time.
>

I am interested in doing a group study.

> -db
>
- Lakshmanan S.

On Wed, 2005-11-23 at 04:09 +0000, David Bock wrote:
> So, lets get some conversation starting!  LEt me ask a few questions:
>
> 1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
> curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?

I'm using Ruby at work - writing an extension to move data in and out of
Evolution and writing a Ruby on Rails app, too.

Yours,

Tom

On Wed, 2005-11-23 at 08:43 -0500, Tom Copeland wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-11-23 at 04:09 +0000, David Bock wrote:
> > So, lets get some conversation starting!  LEt me ask a few questions:
> >
> > 1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
> > curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?
>
> I'm using Ruby at work - writing an extension to move data in and out of
> Evolution and writing a Ruby on Rails app, too.

By the way, that extension is open source, BSD license:

http://revolution.rubyforge.org/

Yours,

Tom

David Bock wrote:
> This is amazing - we already have 47 members in this group.
>
> First, let me mention that this is a moderated list for new members
> only - this is to prevent spammers from joining.  Your first message
> or two may lag until it gets approved, but after that, no approval
> will be necessary.
>
> So, lets get some conversation starting!  LEt me ask a few questions:
>
> 1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
> curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?

While I am not yet using it in my day job, a healthy amount of
curiousity exists there.  The notion of a "brown-bag" presentation to my
fellow employees has been raised.  I've just started here, so that's
been on the back-burner a bit.

I have, however, done one site in Rails as a hobby project.  It's now in
production and helping me in my role as membership chair for a local
non-profit.

I am working on a specialized application in Rails that I hope to turn
into a startup in the not-too-distant future.  Even if my business turns
out to be a total flop, I have learned so much about Rails that I would
consider it a positive investment of my time anyway.

I am also using Rails to create a new site for another non-profit I'm a
part of.  This one I used the Rails list to contract for.

> 2) Do we have anyone in the group willing to give a presentation or
> two on some Ruby subjects?  I'm thinking Ruby basics, web services,
> text processing, connecting to services like LDAP, etc, would all be
> facinating topics.

Any such presenter could get ideas from the very nice Enterprise
Integration With Ruby book available from the Pragmatic Programmers.
I've purchased the combo pack and have been very satisfied.

> 3) Would people be interested in doing a group study of the PragProg
> Pickaxe book and/or rails book?  I can provide some space to meet in
> Reston if people are interested in picking a regular date/time.

Like another poster, I don't know how much I'll be able to take
advantage of any meetings since I live in Richmond.  That hasn't stopped
me from making several trips up to NOVA for JUG meetings, though.

If I were in the area, I'd love the idea of using a meeting to do a Ruby
Quiz.  Reading the solutions to those are always fascinating.  It seems
like a great way to get exposure to new techniques.  Perhaps more than
half of what fascinates me about Rails is Ruby itself, after all.

Cheers,

Jim
http://blog.jimvanfleet.com/

Greetings!  My name is Curtis Olson, from Hamilton, VA.  I am
self-employed, currently working under contract to the U.S. Dept. of
State.  I just went through the Pragmatic Studio Ruby on Rails class in
Reston, and proudly count myself as a member of the Golden Spike group.

> 1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
> curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?

My client is apprehensive to try Ruby, saying that nobody knows it, and
therefore the staff here can't maintain systems written in it.  Still, I
plan to work up some prototypes at home to try to convince them.
MapServer purportedly has nice Ruby script hooks, and a nifty GIS app
will get them where they live ;-)

> 2) Do we have anyone in the group willing to give a
> presentation or two on some Ruby subjects?  I'm thinking Ruby
> basics, web services, text processing, connecting to services
> like LDAP, etc, would all be facinating topics.

I'd be interested in doing this.  I'll try to create something
presentable.

> 3) Would people be interested in doing a group study of the
> PragProg Pickaxe book and/or rails book?  I can provide some
> space to meet in Reston if people are interested in picking a
> regular date/time.

I would very much like to participate in this.  The location is ideal
for me.  Hopefully it can be something scheduled outside of normal work
hours, but I can make do if necessary.

Cheers,
Curtis Olson

olsoncb@...
curtiso@...

Hi everyone,

Right now I'm working with Ruby primarily for curiosity but if I
continue to like it, I'd definately be interested in getting a job
doing this type of programming.

I would also be interested in joining and study groups or
participating in and group meetings.

Mark



--- In novarubygroup@yahoogroups.com, "David Bock" <dbock@f...> wrote:
>
> This is amazing - we already have 47 members in this group.
>
> First, let me mention that this is a moderated list for new members
> only - this is to prevent spammers from joining.  Your first message
> or two may lag until it gets approved, but after that, no approval
> will be necessary.
>
> So, lets get some conversation starting!  LEt me ask a few questions:
>
> 1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
> curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?
>
> 2) Do we have anyone in the group willing to give a presentation or
> two on some Ruby subjects?  I'm thinking Ruby basics, web services,
> text processing, connecting to services like LDAP, etc, would all be
> facinating topics.
>
> 3) Would people be interested in doing a group study of the PragProg
> Pickaxe book and/or rails book?  I can provide some space to meet in
> Reston if people are interested in picking a regular date/time.
>
> -db
>

I'm interested in ruby/rails mainly for future jobs - I'm always
looking out for better ways to develop web applications. I'd also be
willing to give a presentation, although I'm not sure what about - I'm
not exactly a ruby guru yet.

--- In novarubygroup@yahoogroups.com, "David Bock" <dbock@f...> wrote:
> So, lets get some conversation starting!  LEt me ask a few questions:
>
> 1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
> curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?
>
> 2) Do we have anyone in the group willing to give a presentation or
> two on some Ruby subjects?  I'm thinking Ruby basics, web services,
> text processing, connecting to services like LDAP, etc, would all be
> facinating topics.
>
> 3) Would people be interested in doing a group study of the PragProg
> Pickaxe book and/or rails book?  I can provide some space to meet in
> Reston if people are interested in picking a regular date/time.

David Bock wrote:

>This is amazing - we already have 47 members in this group.
>
>
Ye have magical publicity powers. :)

>1) What are people using Ruby for?  Is your interest just
>curiosity/academic, or are you using it in your jobs?
>
>
Mainly just interested in it as a really cool language -- easy to do
normal things, and possible to do weird things. Trying to push Rails at
work as a productivity booster. We'll see how that goes. Direct
management has actually been incredibly open to the idea. Middle
management I've had less contact with (purposefully :) so I dunno about
them. Peers have been giving me the run-around, though, asking all sorts
of skeptical questions, and then saying, "Oh, I mean, that's what I
expect somebody's going to ask you when you have to get it approved for
corporate use."

>2) Do we have anyone in the group willing to give a presentation or
>two on some Ruby subjects?
>
>
I've got a topic brewing that I'm pretty sure everybody would love. I've
just got to figure out how to get it in a presentable format, first.

>If I were in the area, I'd love the idea of using a meeting to do a Ruby
>Quiz.  Reading the solutions to those are always fascinating.  It seems
>like a great way to get exposure to new techniques.
>
I think that's a fantastic idea.

Devin
Re: rules engines, I seem to recall something about them on ruby-talk
(aka comp.lang.ruby) awhile back -- you could search the archives.

All -

I'm very happy to be part of this new group.  I have used Ruby at work
off and on for a few years, but as yet only for simple tasks.

I would be very interested in attending meetings in the Reston area.
I do not yet have content to contribute, though I hope and expect that
at some point I will.

In 1964, Justice Potter Stewart declined to define pornography,
stating simply that "I shall not today attempt further to define the
kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . [b]ut I know it
when I see it . . . "
(http://library.findlaw.com/2003/May/15/132747.html).

Similarly, although I don't know well other scripting languages (such
as Perl, PHP, and Python), when I look at Ruby, my gut tells me that
I'm looking at a great and revolutionary langugage...that 'I know it
when I see it'.

Yet this intuitive feeling of mine is not convincing to others who
require objective information on which to base their opinions.  So my
question is: does anyone know of objective, informative
presentations of Ruby's benefits over these languages?  Powerpoint
slides, Flash presentations, audio or video files, webcasts, web
pages, or plain text files would be examples of media that could be
provided to management to help persuade.

Resources directed to both technical and nontechnical (management)
people would be useful.

I suggest that we as a group keep track of such documents that can be
used by ourselves and others.  Perhaps we could start by posting them
in the Links section of this Yahoo group.  I've just created a "Ruby
Advocacy" folder there.  I've added three links as a start.

Regards,
Keith

Hi, Keith!

krbennettmd wrote:

>I suggest that we as a group keep track of such documents that can be
>used by ourselves and others.  Perhaps we could start by posting them
>in the Links section of this Yahoo group.  I've just created a "Ruby
>Advocacy" folder there.  I've added three links as a start.
>
>
I added a link you're gonna love:

http://ruby-doc.org/whyruby/

Devin

--- In novarubygroup@yahoogroups.com, Colin Freas <colinfreas@g...>
wrote:
>
> What's the best way to get Ruby up and running on Windows?
>
> Is the ruby-1.8.3-i386-mswin32.zip file the best way to go, off of
the
> releases at ruby-lang?
>
> Any special caveats to running Ruby under Windows?
>
> - Colin
>

Here is the link to the one click installer for windows.

http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubyinstaller/

Mark

Colin,

>  What's the best way to get Ruby up and running on Windows?

I would recommend using Curt Hibbs One-Click Ruby Installer:
http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubyinstaller/  or if you are interested
in Ruby on Rails using Instant Rails:
http://rubyforge.org/projects/instantrails/

Personally, I use Mac OS X, but I have used the One-Click Ruby
Installer on a Windows machine at work.  I have no experience with
Instant Rails, but from what I've read folks like it.

Regards,
Sean

Here is a neat interactive introduction to ruby all through the web
browser.

http://tryruby.hobix.com/

If you want to show someone what ruby is like or introduce them to it,
this is a great way to do it.

Mark

Anyone have any experience with using LDAP authentication from Ruby?

I have found this library:  http://ruby-ldap.sourceforge.net/

But I am also interested in some kind of lightweight LDAP tutorial.  I
know in principal what LDAP is all about, but I have never used it via
an API before...

-db

> Anyone have any experience with using LDAP authentication from Ruby?
>
> I have found this library:  http://ruby-ldap.sourceforge.net/
>
> But I am also interested in some kind of lightweight LDAP
> tutorial.  I know in principal what LDAP is all about, but I
> have never used it via an API before...

There's also:

http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-activeldap/

which seems fairly active (last release Nov 2).  Not that I've used
it...

Yours,

Tom

 begin
 LDAP::Conn.new($HOST, $PORT).bind(user, password)
 rescue
 # connect failure
 end

On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 13:23 -0500, Colin Freas wrote:
>
> What's the best way to get Ruby up and running on Windows?
>
> Is the ruby-1.8.3-i386-mswin32.zip file the best way to go, off of the
> releases at ruby-lang?
>
> Any special caveats to running Ruby under Windows?
>
> - Colin

I would also recommend the One-click Installer.  It may not make a bit
of difference for most cases, but I've found it the most useful of the
things I've tried.

Also, don't count on getting it to work with Cygwin, as well.  Maybe
that's just on my setup, though.

And installing it from *within* Cygwin you should just forget about
right now.  I didn't even mention it.  (Ruby gets S--L--O--W!  Try
running those test cases as often when you know it'll take 2 minutes to
even start running.)

Cheers,

Jim

I came up from C'ville to the PragRailsStudio... now it's your turn
to come down to C'ville. You know, it's that place out in the sticks
where TJ set up shop?!   :)

Space is limited, so we're capping attendance, so sign up early if
you are interested.

I've got a couple of ideas to implement already... a Kowari semantic
web querying DSL (think ActiveRecord for the semweb) or Ferret/Rails
integration...

	 Erik


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Nick Laiacona" <nick@...>
> Date: 30 November 2005 08:50:04 GMT-05:00
> To: <cvillejug@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [cvillejug] Ruby Code Jam!
> Reply-To: cvillejug@yahoogroups.com
>
> Announcing the Ruby Code Jam!
>
>
> January 28, 2006 @ the Mudhouse Smartoom space
>
>
> This is going to be an all day hack-a-thon, dedicated to learning
> and exploring the capabilities of Ruby and Ruby on Rails. We have
> reserved the executive meeting space at the Mudhouse on the
> downtown mall in Charlottesville. Breakfast, lunch, and coffee will
> be included. Bring your laptops and your ideas! Participation is
> limited to twelve people, the cost of the event is $60. You must
> pay to be registered.
>
>
> More information can be found here: www.laiacona.com/rubyjam . Feel
> free to forward this message to interested parties.
>
>
> Hope to see you there!
>
> - Nick
>
>
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>  Visit your group "cvillejug" on the web.
>
>  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>  cvillejug-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>

All -

I'd be curious to know how many people use (and like) any IDE's for
Ruby, and if so, which ones?  Or do you just text editors, and if so,
do you use your usual preferred editor (vi, emacs, etc.) or another
editor with Ruby-specific features?

I downloaded and installed the One-Click Installer, which includes the
FreeRIDE IDE, and also the RDE from Sourceforge.  At first glance, RDE
looks better, but that's just first glance.

Any preferences?

Thanks,
Keith

\
> I'd be curious to know how many people use (and like) any
> IDE's for Ruby, and if so, which ones?  Or do you just text
> editors, and if so, do you use your usual preferred editor
> (vi, emacs, etc.) or another editor with Ruby-specific features?
>
> I downloaded and installed the One-Click Installer, which
> includes the FreeRIDE IDE, and also the RDE from Sourceforge.
>  At first glance, RDE looks better, but that's just first glance.

I've been using Eclipse + RDT:

http://rubyeclipse.sourceforge.net/

It works pretty well - syntax highlighting, running unit tests from with
Eclipse, all that sort of thing.

Yours,

Tom