<div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Basically my situation is I have been employed for the last 3 years<br>doing sysadmin, DBA and Rails work, but I've recently handed my
<br>...since I read anything about it. I'm drawn to it because from what<br>I've seen, it seems to have a sense of beauty that Rails lacks.<br>(Rails is very clever, but it sure can be ugly at times.)</blockquote>
<div><br>I am glad you appreciate Nitro's aesthetics ;-) <br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">- Og -<br><br>I have a very database-centric view of web apps: I see the data as
<br>the core of any project and the application just a means to do<br>something useful with it. This seem at odds with the Og philosophy<br>that the object model is key, and the database is used to support it.<br><br>With Rails, I am constantly doing database-level changes, like
<br>renaming columns, moving columns from one table to another, inserting<br>or deleting static data, setting arbitrary constraints (eg CHECK).<br>The blog example makes it look like everything must be done with Og<br>black magic.
<br><br>Will I need to build my own migration system to get the level of<br>database control I'm used to? (Or I could hijack ActiveRecord<br>Migrations for this, I guess.)</blockquote><div><br>Og works both as an object-to-relational mapper (default mode) and as a relational to object mapper. Ie,
<br>you can manually change your schema (as you do in AR) and just add your attributes to your classes. If you follow<br>some simple conventions with your schema changes everything will work. I am doing this all the time.
<br><br>Please note that Og also provides an *automatic* evolution schema. For example if you add or remove or rename attributes <br>in your model classes, Og automatically detects theses changes and automatically changes the relational schema
<br>accordingly.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">RSpec for each of the MVC layers? How about integration tests - are
<br>there any best practices for integrating, say Watir into a Nitro<br>app's development cycle?</blockquote><div><br>Older versions of Nitro offered support for unit/integration testing. This code is currently out-of-date in the repository
<br>version :( I plan to actively work on this, this month though. I *need* testing infrastructure for my current project so you can be sure that testing support will be back sooner rather than later.<br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
One nice thing about Rails due to its popularity relative maturity is<br>that if you've thought about it, at least three other people have<br>too, and one has certainly written a plugin for it. What's the<br>situation in Nitro? Is there a lot of wheel-reinvention needed for
<br>things Rails people take for granted? I'm sure this is very much<br>dependent on the exact problem you are trying to solve.</blockquote><div><br>Nitro is quite compatible with Rails. I find it *extremely* easy to 'convert' most Rails plugins for my own usage.
<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> If I<br>start building a Nitro app tomorrow, will I find myself spending the<br>
first month just trying to figure out basic things?</blockquote><div><br>The lack of proper documentation is the biggest problem in Nitro. But the mailing list is pretty helpful. I would say go for it, and we will help you as much as possible.
<br></div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">I've been a bit spoilt by RJS. Will I be forced to (finally,<br>grudgingly) learn JavaScript? Does Nitro have an equivalent means of
<br>sending multiple updates to a page? With RJS, I can pretty much<br>reconfigure a whole page with a few lines of Ruby. It's often not<br>perfect, but it's a real time saver.</blockquote><div><br>The latest versions of Nitro promote the usage of JQuery. JQuery renders a system like RJS obsolete. You can do everythinthing just as consize and be more flexible with JQuery. Now that you mention it, I will keep in mind to provide some example about how I am using JQuery with nitro for some cool and extremely easy to implement ajax effects. JQuery is so powerfull that I decided to remove all the old javascript helpers. You just don't need helpers with JQuery.
<br> </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">- Real World Use -<br><br>Are there any lists of Nitro-powered sites so I can see what people
<br>have achieved? I don't doubt you can build large, robust apps with<br>Nitro (I still work with people who question if you can do that with<br>Rails), I'd just like to know what they are.<br></blockquote></div>
<br>I am about to use Nitro on a *really big project*. Some earlier public exaples are:<br><br>- <a href="http://www.cull.gr">www.cull.gr</a><br>- <a href="http://www.joyerz.com">www.joyerz.com</a><br>- <a href="http://www.phidz.com">
www.phidz.com</a><br>- <a href="http://www.ruby-doc.org">www.ruby-doc.org</a><br><br><br><br>I hope this helps,<br><br>-g.<br><br>-- <br><a href="http://www.me.gr">http://www.me.gr</a><br><a href="http://phidz.com">http://phidz.com
</a><br><a href="http://blog.gmosx.com">http://blog.gmosx.com</a><br><a href="http://cull.gr">http://cull.gr</a><br><a href="http://www.joy.gr">http://www.joy.gr</a><br><a href="http://nitroproject.org">http://nitroproject.org
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