Wow, I have to say that I’m getting jealous of the [tag]Ruby on Rails[/tag] framework. Their new release looks simply great.

I read the Signal vs Noise blog, despite the fact that I’m not a Rails developer, since they are so darn smart and inspirational. Looking over the list of new features in the latest release, I find myself thinking that they "get it". They add things which provide real value to actual web developers.

The new features don’t have the Java-reek of "design by committee" or "let’s over-engineer so that we’re enterprise-class", they have the flavor of features added because they are needed, wanted, and will be used. It is a lot of the same reason I love [tag]Django[/tag]. Both projects clearly come from an environment where if the feature isn’t needed for something real, it isn’t getting added.

The sweetest 3 new features

• JavaScript in Ruby, RJS. Taking a look at JS code before and after RJS, I have to say that I am green with envy.
• Accept-driven responses. A brilliant hack, they are now using the HTTP "Accept" header to drive controller output.
• Integration testing. Anything which adds more hooks and more ease of testing is good in my book.

I’m still not a convert. If I had the time, I might give it a whirl, but for now I’m going to stick with Django. That doesn’t mean I won’t be raiding Rails for ideas though.