Ruby is a great language for building application frameworks, particularly micro-frameworks. The sad thing is that by the time most frameworks become popular, they end up quite complicated. To discover the joy of building reusable scaffolding for others, it’s necessary to take a look at where the need for that scaffolding comes from in the first place.

In the January 2012 core skills session at Mendicant University, I asked our students to each build multi-user email based applications. While the students were working on very different projects, there was a ton of boilerplate that was common between them all. Because it was too painful to watch the same bits of code get written again and again in slightly different ways, I decided to build a tiny framework to solve this problem.

In this issue of Practicing Ruby and the one that follows it, I’m going to have you work through the code I wrote and help me figure out what goes into building a good application framework. The goal for this issue is to generate ideas and questions about the codebase. All of what we learn from this exercise will be neatly packaged up and synthesized in time for Issue 3.6, but for now I’m looking for folks to get their hands dirty.

The Challenge

I would like you to spend at least the same amount of time you’d ordinarily spend reading a Practicing Ruby article actively reading and working through Newman 0.1.1, my micro-framework for email based applications. I have intentionally left the source uncommented for two reasons: to get you to practice your code reading skills and to get your candid feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of my overall design without influencing you too much.

As you read the code, don’t just passively click through files on github! Instead, pull down the source and play with it: Run the examples if you can, or even better, build your own examples. Try to break stuff if you think you might be able to find a bug or two, or try to add a new feature you find interesting. This is an open sandbox to play in!

Once you have managed to find your way around, you’re encouraged to start actively collaborating. I’ll be available via the #newman IRC channel and [email protected] to listen to any ideas or questions you have. Of course, feel free to use Github for bug reports, feature requests, and comments on pull requests / commits.

In this code I’ve tried to apply pretty much everything I’ve ever taught via Practicing Ruby whenever there was an opportunity to do so. I’ve also broken away from established Ruby conventions in places to explore new ideas. Reading it will be worth your time, and if you actively involve yourself in the conversations around it, you’ll be sure to level up your Ruby skills in no time.

One last thing: Don’t be afraid to ask where to get started if you feel stuck. The purpose of this exercise is to learn, and I will do what I can to help you get a lot out of this challenge.