Again, forgive me for the long absence. There are a lot things I trying to get done. I just registered the domain name for my future startup. That includes a dedicated office in downtown Iloilo. I haven't registered the name with DTI. And inline with the planned startup, are two web applications targeting niche markets I was interested in recently while going through the process of selling and buying cars. Both will try to target local (Iloilo) markets. If time permits, one app will launched, under the new startup name. Both will be free to everybody until I figure out a way to monetize them.

Even though I'm using PHP extensively for regular work, I'm using Ruby on Rails to develop the upcoming web app and hopefully for other projects under the startup.

So there. A long absence in reporting irrelevant events in Iloilo resulted to webapps Ilonggos can use or, even better, profit from.

This is another entry that has nothing to do with Iloilo. The mere fact that I don't get to go out often to observe the latest happenings in Iloilo City is reason enough to write just about anything here.

The earliest date that I can remember when I became a programmer was in year 2000. I bought a Visual Basic book with an educational version of Visual Basic 6 CD. Even with the crippled version of the hugely popular (at that time) programming language, I was able to create crude programs like time keeper, screensaver locks and restaurant menu system.

At that time I was managing our financing/installment business. I was really good at excel that I was using it for everything. Learning VB would be a great help in automating daily tasks. I've also learned a great deal about database while interfacing VB with MS Access. However, I have not created a single app for our business using it. Instead, I went to learn C programming language.

It was already early 2001 and I was able to download an outdated but free ide/compiler/debugger TurboC v2 from Borland website. Being a lower level and closer to the hardware, C taught me a lot about data structures and how to go about solving problems on my own. I only have very limited access to internet. My ultimate guide is an old TurboC book. I created a Snake game like the one in Nokia as a school project in Informatics.

I've also taken PERL and played for a while but never gotten to create anything substantial with it which is what Perl is really good at.

Then came Java. Java was the most sought-after programming skills abroad. Just by knowing how to program in Java can dramatically increase your chance of getting hired or immigrating abroad. Taking up Java was easy because I already know C. It's just a matter of unlearning some C bad habits and learning the Object Oriented paradigm.

It's in Java that I finally wrote our business' program. It was written as an intranet application using Tomcat as the container and JSP for scripting. I was still using MS Access as it was readily available.

Even though those programs were written as a hobbiest and hackish at best, I'm still proud of them. They were the labor of my late night hackfests.

This really has nothing to do about Iloilo. Just a way to tell everybody that the person behind the site is still alive.

Coding PHP non-stop daily for a year made me feel like I'm lagging further behind the latest web development bandwagon. It was two years ago that I heard about the new web development framework that had everybody excited, Ruby On Rails - in the US, at least. I was deep into Python and was polishing my PHP skills that I didn't even consider learning a new programming language Ruby, the one Ruby on Rails is built on (hence the "Ruby" in the name) much more pick up another framework.

PHP was great. Anybody can develop a web site or a web application in no time. CodeIgniter, the PHP framework we use, still rocks. But why learn another now? In the internet time, you can get yourself obsolete pretty fast. Newer, better, faster and more secure way to achieve what you want in software/application development are being produce everyday.

Why Ruby On Rails?
Over the past two weeks or so, I was rewriting our ever demanding webapp. Last week, I found myself getting increasingly bored with what I do. I need something to get me excited again. Python and PHP got me coding until dawn when I was learning them.

Python still amazes me. Naturally, I would go and get me a python web framework. I started with the more popular ones, Django and Turbogears. I couldn't get the sample applications to work. Next, I found Pylons. This time, I was successful. I could use this one. Reading through their documentation, I found features referencing Rails. I wonder why all web frameworks I get across try to emulate Rails. I wanted to find out.

Getting Started
I'm using Ubuntu, so installing Ruby On Rails was a piece of cake. Less than 20 minutes later, I have a working Rails application up and running. Now, I'm really excited. Development time in CodeIgniter is quick but this is even quicker.

Now I need some tools to make my experience with Rails - and Ruby, for that matter - wonderful. My problem with PHP is that I can't find a suitable editor in Linux for it. Currently, I'm using kate editor for everything but I'm longing for that complete programming environment or IDE. The likes of MS Visual Studio or Eclipse. PHP has PHPEclipse and PDT plugin for eclipse but the former have some issues with my eclipse install and the latter is still in pre version 1.0.

But Rails have Radrails. Also an Eclipse plugin. This time, installing the plugin is as easy as installing rails. I get this feeling that everything Rails related must be easy. That I'm going to find out after I'm done developing a more complex application using it.