0:00:23.100,0:00:26.500
LUKE FRANCL: Good afternoon. I'd like to get[br]started if, I

0:00:26.500,0:00:30.140
think, everybody's ready. Cool. Cool.

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Thank, thank you for joining me this afternoon.[br]I'm

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excited to be here. And thanks for, thanks[br]for

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choosing this talk.

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So it's been ten years since the first public

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release on Rails, so I think that's a good

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time to think back and reflect on where Rails

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has come from, where it might be going, and

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what the future has in store.

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So, I've been thinking a lot about the early

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days of Rails, lately, because the company[br]I work

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for, Swiftype, makes site search software.[br]So I use

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my own website for testing. So I index my

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site and then have to do searches on it,

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and I'll search for Rails. Just cause I'm[br]not

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super creative and I need to search for something,

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right.

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And, in doing so, I found some old blog

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posts that I wrote in early 2005, when I

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first discovered Rails. And it was really[br]interesting for

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me to read, because back then, I was, I

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was working as a Java developer and I was

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really interested in Python. And Rails was[br]neither of

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those things. So I was pretty skeptical of[br]Rails.

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Like, I was impressed with it, but I wasn't

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sure it was worth learning Ruby over.

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So I thought, I'll just sit back and let

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the Python people catch up. And I waited and

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I waited and I waited, and that never really

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seemed to happen. And so after a few months,

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I jumped into Rails and started learning it[br]and

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I started learning Ruby so that I could use

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Rails. And then that fall, I got wind of

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a new group starting in my home town. The

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Ruby Users of Minnesota. And so I was, I

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was there at the first meeting when there[br]was

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twelve people talk, who were just really excited[br]about

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Ruby and really excited about Rails.

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And at that point I joined the, the Ruby

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community and became a part of that and really

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have not, have not looked back since then.[br]And

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I've been working with Rails professionally[br]now for about

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eight years.

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So this made me think about a book I

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read once called Looking Backward by Edward[br]Bellamy. So

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in this book, which was written in the late

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1800s and takes place at that time, a rich,

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upperclass man is hypnotized. And he falls[br]asleep for

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over a hundred years. And when he wakes up,

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everything has changed.

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America is now a socialist utopia. And so,[br]you

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know, he had it pretty good before, right.[br]He,

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he was wealthy. He had servants. And now everyone

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is equal. And so he's pretty skeptical of[br]this

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new order.

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So it takes him awhile, but as he's shown

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the new way of doing things, he becomes convinced

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that this is actually a better way. And that

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made me think of, think of my situation, where

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I was, I was skeptical of Rails, and, but

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eventually won over.

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So today, what I'd like to talk about is

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the idea of what would a programmer from 2004

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think if they could time travel forward to[br]today

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and experience our web development utopia.[br]What would that

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be like, for them, to see how we work

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today?

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So, what I'd like to do today is first

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talk about what web development was like in[br]2004.

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Then, I'd like to jump forward to the present

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and think about what a programmer from 2004[br]would

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think about our web development utopia of[br]today. And

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finally I'd like to take a look at what

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the future might have in store for Rails,[br]and

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what the, what the legacy of Rails might be.

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So first, let's talk a little bit about what

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development was like in 2004.

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So if I can set the stage for a

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minute, I see a lot of Mac Books here

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today. There were no Mac Books in 2004. The

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top of the line Apple laptop was a Power

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Mac G4. And, you know, Apple had not completely

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penetrated the web development community like[br]it has now.

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There were only, I, I used Linux at work

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myself. And, a Windows at home, actually.[br]And the

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most popular phone, like, maybe not the most[br]popular,

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but the hottest phone in 2004 was a Motorrola

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Razr. So, right?

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So things were pretty different there. Things[br]were pretty

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different then. And I was working as a Java

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developer at the time. And I was pretty excited

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about that, because I graduated in 2001, right[br]after

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the dot com bust. And things were pretty sketchy

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there for awhile. It was hard for me to

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find a job. And so I was excited that

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I was able to work as a Java developer,

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in the hot language at the time. And I

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was, I was glad that I was able to

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work at a software development company, where[br]I could

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work on software for sale instead of working[br]in

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the cost center at a, at a big bank

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or something like that, right.

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So I was working as a Java developer, and

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if you've ever done any Java web development,[br]you

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know that it can be pretty painful, right.[br]At

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the time, the, the best way to do Java

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web development was struts and hibernate.[br]But we didn't

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use either of those. We used raw Java servelettes

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and hand coded J, JDBC queries to our database.

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So the, the real problem with Java as a,

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as a web development platform, at least in[br]those

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days, was it, it has a really long edit,

0:06:12.740,0:06:16.789
compile, debug loop. Or, in the case of, of

0:06:16.789,0:06:20.830
Java web development, it's the edit, compile,[br]deploy, debug

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loop. Because you have to restart your app[br]server,

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and we used Web Sphere, so that took a

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long time.

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So if I needed to write a new page

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for, for our app, it, it was a pretty

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involved process. So we used raw servelettes,[br]so that's

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sort of like using a raw CGI library, where

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it's very low-level. And if, when you work[br]in

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Java, it's very verbose and you have to read

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from input streams and write to output streams.[br]And

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it just doesn't have the conveniences of Ruby[br]or

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a scripting language.

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So I'd have to write my servelette, then I'd

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have to write a bunch of XML files, or

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XML code in the web dot xml file to

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map it up. And then you'd compile everything[br]and

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get it working and then restart your app server,

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which would take several minutes. And then[br]browse to

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the new page to, to see what it, what's

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going on there.

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And that's where the fun would start, because[br]that's

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when the JSPs came into play. So JSP is

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just like ERB, right. Instead of Ruby, it's[br]Java.

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But Java a much more heavy-weight language,[br]and it

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doesn't have, you know, friendly looping constructs[br]or mapping

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constructs like Ruby does. So writing view[br]code in

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Ruby, or in Java is not very much fun.

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But worst of all, the way that JSPs work

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is that it takes the Java, or the JSP

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code that you write and it compiles it into

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a Java class file. And then that Java class

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file gets compiled into code. So when you[br]get

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an error, when you're debugging, you'd get[br]this stack

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trace, and it would be like, NullPointer exception[br]on

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line 12,075 of line 20,082, and you'd sit[br]there

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and you'd think, ah. What was I doing in

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my JSP that could cause a NullPointer exception?

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And you'd look at the JSP and you'd look

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at the stack trace, and they had no correspondence

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whatsoever, right. So it's really painful.[br]And if you

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were smart, you would, there was a setting,[br]like

0:08:21.770,0:08:23.449
a secret setting you could use for Web Sphere

0:08:23.449,0:08:27.569
to keep around the compiled Java files. So[br]then

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you could open that up in your web browser

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and look at line 12,075 and be like, oh.

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That's what I was doing in the JSP.

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So, web development in Java, especially in[br]2004, not

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very much fun. But there was, there was also

0:08:44.820,0:08:48.110
at that time a glimmer that something better[br]was

0:08:48.110,0:08:53.570
on the way, that the web could do more.

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There was a new sense that the web was

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a powerful platform for delivering software.[br]And I think

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that the earliest glimmerings of this come[br]from Microsoft's

0:09:04.400,0:09:08.570
Outlook web app. This was the first application[br]to

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use what we would call today Ajax, without[br]requiring

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any kind of browser plugins.

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So that, that came out in 2001. And people,

0:09:18.990,0:09:20.840
people didn't pay much attention to it because[br]it

0:09:20.840,0:09:24.610
was IE only and it, it wasn't clear how

0:09:24.610,0:09:27.540
it was working, right. And then Google launched[br]Google

0:09:27.540,0:09:31.090
Suggest. And people dissected that, and they[br]saw how

0:09:31.090,0:09:35.740
it was working. And they also launched Gmail,[br]which

0:09:35.740,0:09:37.740
gave people a new sense of what was possible

0:09:37.740,0:09:39.840
in a web app. That, that web apps could

0:09:39.840,0:09:44.180
automatically refresh as things were changing[br]on the server.

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So there was a new sense of what was

0:09:46.050,0:09:49.060
possible. That, that, that maybe there was[br]a better

0:09:49.060,0:09:52.380
way of writing web apps. And in 2004 I

0:09:52.380,0:09:56.360
was also looking for something better. Because,[br]and I

0:09:56.360,0:09:58.070
attribute that to a book I read early in

0:09:58.070,0:10:01.530
my career. The Pragmatic Programmer by Dave[br]Thomas and

0:10:01.530,0:10:04.260
Andy Hunt. And in that book, which is, it's

0:10:04.260,0:10:06.510
a terrific book about becoming a better software[br]developer,

0:10:06.510,0:10:10.270
a better software crafts man. In that book,[br]they

0:10:10.270,0:10:13.720
talk about the importance of learning a scripting[br]language.

0:10:13.720,0:10:16.240
And that's because, if you were working in[br]a

0:10:16.240,0:10:19.150
language like Java, there's often things that[br]are too,

0:10:19.150,0:10:21.110
too small of a task to make it worth

0:10:21.110,0:10:23.990
writing a Java program to do. And, but a

0:10:23.990,0:10:25.640
scripting language you can, you know, knock[br]that off

0:10:25.640,0:10:27.350
really easily.

0:10:27.350,0:10:28.940
So things that you might do manually, you[br]can

0:10:28.940,0:10:33.020
instead write a script to do for you. And

0:10:33.020,0:10:35.410
so I took that to heart, and I went

0:10:35.410,0:10:38.010
to the book store. Remember, this was the[br]early

0:10:38.010,0:10:42.580
2000s. There were still bookstores. And I[br]looked at

0:10:42.580,0:10:44.780
all the books that they had about scripting[br]languages.

0:10:44.780,0:10:46.350
So there was a bunch of books about Perl.

0:10:46.350,0:10:49.620
There was a bunch of books about Python. And

0:10:49.620,0:10:52.220
there was this one book about Ruby by those

0:10:52.220,0:10:55.460
same guys, Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt.

0:10:55.460,0:10:58.270
So I immediately just started the books about[br]Perl,

0:10:58.270,0:11:00.640
because I'd worked with Perl before and I[br]thought

0:11:00.640,0:11:05.370
it was terrible. And I looked at the books

0:11:05.370,0:11:07.620
about Python, and I'm like, this looks OK.[br]I

0:11:07.620,0:11:09.710
can see myself using this. And then I looked

0:11:09.710,0:11:13.170
at the book about Ruby. And, unfortunately,[br]what I

0:11:13.170,0:11:14.750
saw in the book about Ruby was a lot

0:11:14.750,0:11:18.730
of dollar signs and dollar sign underscores[br]and at

0:11:18.730,0:11:23.000
signs and at at signs. And I thought, this

0:11:23.000,0:11:26.450
looks just like Perl. I don't, I don't want

0:11:26.450,0:11:28.840
to learn this. This, this is, this is, this

0:11:28.840,0:11:30.550
is crappy.

0:11:30.550,0:11:33.610
So I decided then to become a Python programmer.

0:11:33.610,0:11:35.920
And I was actually able to use Python for

0:11:35.920,0:11:37.700
a number of things in my job and my

0:11:37.700,0:11:41.350
personal programming. I wrote a script to[br]migrate from

0:11:41.350,0:11:44.040
one bug database to the other. I wrote a

0:11:44.040,0:11:46.440
script that tied our subversion check ins[br]to our

0:11:46.440,0:11:48.640
bug database so you could reference bug numbers[br]and

0:11:48.640,0:11:51.670
link up the commits and stuff.

0:11:51.670,0:11:55.360
And I, I wrote some personal scripts. But[br]what

0:11:55.360,0:11:58.320
I really wanted to do was write web apps.

0:11:58.320,0:12:00.580
Because that's, throughout my career, that's[br]always what I've

0:12:00.580,0:12:03.570
been most excited about. Because I've always[br]loved the

0:12:03.570,0:12:06.680
potential of the web as a platform for enabling

0:12:06.680,0:12:10.770
communication. It's, it's the most powerful[br]and widely distributed

0:12:10.770,0:12:14.600
way that you can connect people.

0:12:14.600,0:12:16.100
And so every time I would have an idea

0:12:16.100,0:12:19.770
for a web app in Python, I would start

0:12:19.770,0:12:22.060
thinking about how it, or, I would start thinking

0:12:22.060,0:12:23.830
about how it should work and what it should

0:12:23.830,0:12:25.620
do. And I'd get excited about it, and want

0:12:25.620,0:12:28.200
to build it. And then I'd start reading about

0:12:28.200,0:12:30.040
how to build web apps in Python. And get

0:12:30.040,0:12:31.500
really frustrated.

0:12:31.500,0:12:33.770
Because, then there was no clear way. There[br]was

0:12:33.770,0:12:38.370
no Jengo. There was CGI in the core library,

0:12:38.370,0:12:40.500
but, you know, who wants to write at that

0:12:40.500,0:12:46.600
low-level? There was, then, a myriad of templating[br]options

0:12:46.600,0:12:50.190
and different object relational mappers and[br]different ways of

0:12:50.190,0:12:53.320
publishing your objects to the web and different[br]database

0:12:53.320,0:12:57.370
drivers. And, there was no clear way of deploying

0:12:57.370,0:12:58.500
the software, either.

0:12:58.500,0:13:02.170
So I would have this idea for what I

0:13:02.170,0:13:04.570
thought would be the next great app, and then

0:13:04.570,0:13:08.210
I would start reading about Python, how to[br]implement

0:13:08.210,0:13:11.450
it in Python and get frustrated and give up.

0:13:11.450,0:13:13.980
But I didn't know it at the time, but

0:13:13.980,0:13:16.320
there was something better on the way.

0:13:16.320,0:13:23.260
So let's turn now to 2014, and think about

0:13:23.260,0:13:27.380
what would a programmer from 2004 think about[br]how

0:13:27.380,0:13:30.050
we work today.

0:13:30.050,0:13:31.200
And I think if you could take someone from

0:13:31.200,0:13:33.240
then and bring them forward to now, I think

0:13:33.240,0:13:36.370
they would be amazed. Because it's truly a[br]great

0:13:36.370,0:13:40.680
time to be a programmer. We're all walking[br]around

0:13:40.680,0:13:43.040
with a computer in our pockets that's more[br]powerful

0:13:43.040,0:13:47.050
than the desktop I had in 2004. And it

0:13:47.050,0:13:50.310
has a, a better web browser, too.

0:13:50.310,0:13:53.950
So think about what's different between now[br]and then.

0:13:53.950,0:13:58.270
In 2004, Ajax was in its infancy. The term

0:13:58.270,0:14:04.320
hadn't even been coined yet. Today, rich Ajax[br]frameworks

0:14:04.320,0:14:08.940
come with every web application framework.[br]So you can,

0:14:08.940,0:14:12.670
you can build rich, interactive applications[br]much easier.

0:14:12.670,0:14:15.550
And, you can even write your entire frontend[br]in

0:14:15.550,0:14:19.760
JavaScript if you want to. Web browsers are[br]immeasurably

0:14:19.760,0:14:25.290
more powerful now than they, than they were[br]then.

0:14:25.290,0:14:28.900
Deployment is much easier, too. In 2004, it[br]was

0:14:28.900,0:14:30.420
really hard to figure out how you should get

0:14:30.420,0:14:33.830
your app up on the web. You could colo,

0:14:33.830,0:14:37.100
but that was expensive. You could use shared[br]hosting,

0:14:37.100,0:14:41.110
like, DreamHost or something like that. But[br]those servers

0:14:41.110,0:14:44.320
were underpowered and kind of weak.

0:14:44.320,0:14:46.870
Today, you can spin up a server with the

0:14:46.870,0:14:49.940
click of a button. You can manage everything[br]yourself

0:14:49.940,0:14:53.040
if you want to use EC2, or you can

0:14:53.040,0:14:56.770
rely on platform services like Heroku or Google[br]App

0:14:56.770,0:15:00.820
Engine. And this is really great for programmers,[br]because

0:15:00.820,0:15:03.490
you don't have to be a great programmer and

0:15:03.490,0:15:06.670
a great sys admin now to launch a web

0:15:06.670,0:15:10.700
application. You can let other people handle[br]that part.

0:15:10.700,0:15:11.910
And that's terrific.

0:15:11.910,0:15:14.920
Another thing that I think is really powerful[br]about

0:15:14.920,0:15:20.950
how we work today is that in, today we

0:15:20.950,0:15:24.160
have access to all of these web service APIs,

0:15:24.160,0:15:27.380
with a simple HTTP request. You can extend[br]the

0:15:27.380,0:15:30.290
functionality of your app really easily by[br]leveraging these

0:15:30.290,0:15:30.940
services.

0:15:30.940,0:15:34.270
There's everything from search, like my, my[br]company provides,

0:15:34.270,0:15:36.970
to payments from companies like Stripe, and[br]even telephony

0:15:36.970,0:15:39.560
from companies like Twillio.

0:15:39.560,0:15:42.640
So with just an HTTP request, you can add

0:15:42.640,0:15:46.500
that kind of functionality into your application[br]super easily.

0:15:46.500,0:15:49.320
And best of all, you're us- they use JSON

0:15:49.320,0:15:51.440
instead of XML. So there's no XML setups like

0:15:51.440,0:15:55.660
there was back in the early 2000s.

0:15:55.660,0:15:58.280
But what about Rails? Like, what would a programmer

0:15:58.280,0:16:02.060
from 2004 think about Ruby on Rails? Well,[br]I

0:16:02.060,0:16:04.930
think if you could bring someone, or talk[br]to

0:16:04.930,0:16:07.610
somebody in 2004 and say, in ten years the

0:16:07.610,0:16:09.380
best way to make a web app is gonna

0:16:09.380,0:16:11.920
be this thing called Ruby on Rails. I think

0:16:11.920,0:16:15.320
what they would say is, what on Rails?

0:16:15.320,0:16:19.300
It's difficult to overstate how marginal the[br]Ruby community

0:16:19.300,0:16:26.300
was in 2004. When David publicly demo'd Rails[br]at

0:16:27.830,0:16:31.830
RubyConf 2004, there were probably less people[br]in the

0:16:31.830,0:16:36.070
room than there are right now. That, there[br]were

0:16:36.070,0:16:39.170
about sixty people at that conference.

0:16:39.170,0:16:43.010
Today, there's dozens of conferences around[br]the world, and

0:16:43.010,0:16:46.790
thousands of people make their livings using[br]Ruby and

0:16:46.790,0:16:52.880
Rails. The community has grown tremendously[br]since those days.

0:16:52.880,0:16:58.240
But what about the features? The features[br]were really

0:16:58.240,0:17:02.850
what made Rails succeed. And if I think back

0:17:02.850,0:17:05.429
on what I first thought about Rails when I

0:17:05.429,0:17:09.199
saw it, like, what impressed me. Things that,[br]that

0:17:09.199,0:17:12.789
really stand out in my mind are things like

0:17:12.789,0:17:14.730
live reloading.

0:17:14.730,0:17:16.770
Compared to how I was working in Java, where

0:17:16.770,0:17:18.299
it was like, a really long cycle to get

0:17:18.299,0:17:20.829
anything up on the screen, in Rails, you could

0:17:20.829,0:17:24.148
edit any file. You could edit your model,[br]you're,

0:17:24.148,0:17:27.049
you're views. Even your database schema. And[br]reload your

0:17:27.049,0:17:30.129
browser and it was right there. And that was

0:17:30.129,0:17:31.200
tremendously exciting.

0:17:31.200,0:17:33.629
And, if you had an exception in your, in

0:17:33.629,0:17:36.220
your view, you would see exactly which line[br]of

0:17:36.220,0:17:39.200
code caused it, and not have to wade through

0:17:39.200,0:17:41.779
these huge stack traces that had nothing to[br]do

0:17:41.779,0:17:45.700
with what you were working on. And that was

0:17:45.700,0:17:47.809
tremendous for developer productivity.

0:17:47.809,0:17:50.350
Another thing that was a real big win for

0:17:50.350,0:17:55.250
developer productivity, for me anyway, was[br]the development console.

0:17:55.250,0:17:57.529
Rails let you just type a single command and

0:17:57.529,0:17:59.490
get full access to all of the code that

0:17:59.490,0:18:01.799
you'd been writing. So, for me, I keep that

0:18:01.799,0:18:03.799
open all the time. And I am always constantly

0:18:03.799,0:18:06.980
trying out things and experimenting and trying[br]to figure

0:18:06.980,0:18:09.909
out how different APIs work by using the developer

0:18:09.909,0:18:11.299
console.

0:18:11.299,0:18:12.909
This is something that I'd been able to get

0:18:12.909,0:18:15.779
working in the Java world using a tool called

0:18:15.779,0:18:18.240
BeanShell, which is like a Java scripting[br]framework. But

0:18:18.240,0:18:20.720
it was nowhere near as good as the Rails

0:18:20.720,0:18:24.009
console, and, you know, it just was a lot

0:18:24.009,0:18:27.700
harder to, to get working.

0:18:27.700,0:18:29.649
Related to that is just the idea of having

0:18:29.649,0:18:33.399
separate development environments. Rails came[br]right out of the

0:18:33.399,0:18:36.590
box with development, production, and test,[br]and has separate

0:18:36.590,0:18:38.480
databases for all of those things. So you[br]didn't

0:18:38.480,0:18:40.539
have to worry about mixing your code together.

0:18:40.539,0:18:43.669
You could have separate configurations for[br]testing and production

0:18:43.669,0:18:47.220
and development. And that really helped with[br]the software

0:18:47.220,0:18:49.409
engineering side of Rails.

0:18:49.409,0:18:52.519
Finally, the, the, the last big feature that[br]I

0:18:52.519,0:18:56.169
think really stood out to me was ActiveRecord[br]and

0:18:56.169,0:19:00.100
migrations. ActiveRecord was super exciting,[br]because here, this, this,

0:19:00.100,0:19:02.559
this, this code is sort of magically intuiting[br]the,

0:19:02.559,0:19:05.200
the fields from the structure of your database.[br]You

0:19:05.200,0:19:06.950
didn't have to write any code at all. And

0:19:06.950,0:19:10.480
for someone who was writing SQL statements[br]by hand,

0:19:10.480,0:19:12.600
that was really exciting.

0:19:12.600,0:19:14.799
And migrations were awesome, too, because[br]you always need

0:19:14.799,0:19:17.750
to transition the state of your database in[br]your,

0:19:17.750,0:19:18.690
in your application.

0:19:18.690,0:19:21.610
And, again, this is something that we had[br]built

0:19:21.610,0:19:24.940
at my job. But ours was not as good.

0:19:24.940,0:19:28.940
It, it used raw SQL, so you would write

0:19:28.940,0:19:32.039
SQL statements to, to transition the database.[br]And it

0:19:32.039,0:19:34.419
was tied directly to the app version that,[br]that

0:19:34.419,0:19:36.960
we had. So, when you would release a new

0:19:36.960,0:19:39.350
version of the app, you would have to sync

0:19:39.350,0:19:41.649
that with the database. The database version[br]would have

0:19:41.649,0:19:42.889
to be synced with that.

0:19:42.889,0:19:44.690
So there was, there was no way to independently

0:19:44.690,0:19:46.610
migrate the database.

0:19:46.610,0:19:47.970
And there was no way to go down. So

0:19:47.970,0:19:50.980
you had to get it right. Rails was better

0:19:50.980,0:19:53.190
than that.

0:19:53.190,0:19:56.149
But why did Rails win? Why, why was Rails

0:19:56.149,0:19:59.070
exciting to people? Because all these features[br]were available

0:19:59.070,0:20:03.169
elsewhere. I think there's three reasons.

0:20:03.169,0:20:04.960
First of all, while each of these features[br]was

0:20:04.960,0:20:07.700
something that you could get in other web[br]programming

0:20:07.700,0:20:11.759
frameworks, Rails brought them all together.[br]Rails was the

0:20:11.759,0:20:18.690
whole package. So Rails took things that were[br]possible

0:20:18.690,0:20:21.539
and made them easy. It, even that, it made

0:20:21.539,0:20:22.970
them the default.

0:20:22.970,0:20:25.330
So Rails took a lot of best practices and

0:20:25.330,0:20:27.570
put them together in one thing that you could

0:20:27.570,0:20:31.200
use super simply. And that was really exciting[br]to

0:20:31.200,0:20:34.549
people. Even, even for me, because I was able

0:20:34.549,0:20:36.309
to, to do some of the things that Rails

0:20:36.309,0:20:39.419
had. Having it together in one package was[br]super

0:20:39.419,0:20:41.259
exciting.

0:20:41.259,0:20:43.330
The second reason I think Rails succeeded[br]is the

0:20:43.330,0:20:46.279
triumph of hype. If you go back and read

0:20:46.279,0:20:49.490
the early blog posts about Rails, it's really[br]interesting

0:20:49.490,0:20:53.200
because it really caused a furor in the Java

0:20:53.200,0:20:55.470
and the Python world. Because people were[br]like, well,

0:20:55.470,0:20:57.950
why can't we do this? And in the middle

0:20:57.950,0:21:01.809
of all that, you saw DHH. He was constantly

0:21:01.809,0:21:06.230
promoting Rails and getting into discussions[br]and arguments with

0:21:06.230,0:21:10.570
other people and blogging about it. And he,[br]he

0:21:10.570,0:21:13.600
was relentless in promoting Rails, and the[br]early Rails

0:21:13.600,0:21:16.929
community was relentless in sharing their[br]enthusiasm for this

0:21:16.929,0:21:18.419
new thing.

0:21:18.419,0:21:20.450
And I think that that matters a lot, because

0:21:20.450,0:21:23.809
it's not enough to have great code and just

0:21:23.809,0:21:26.720
put it up on the internet. That, that never

0:21:26.720,0:21:29.169
works. You need to tell people about what[br]you're

0:21:29.169,0:21:32.970
doing in order for them to know about it.

0:21:32.970,0:21:36.490
And you need to explain clearly and concisely[br]why

0:21:36.490,0:21:40.480
it's better than what they're doing now. And[br]Rails,

0:21:40.480,0:21:44.149
David and the Rails community really succeeded[br]at that.

0:21:44.149,0:21:48.919
Third. Another reason that Rails succeeded[br]is the triumph

0:21:48.919,0:21:53.379
of community. From really early days, Rails[br]had the

0:21:53.379,0:21:56.320
ability to be extended with plugins. And so[br]people

0:21:56.320,0:21:59.509
wrote plugins that would take care of default[br]areas,

0:21:59.509,0:22:02.220
or not, not default areas, but common areas[br]of

0:22:02.220,0:22:06.039
your application, like logging in or uploading[br]files.

0:22:06.039,0:22:07.429
These are the things that you needed in your

0:22:07.429,0:22:10.639
app, but they weren't core to your app. And

0:22:10.639,0:22:13.980
so knowing that you could take advantage of[br]these,

0:22:13.980,0:22:18.440
these plugins and later gems really made picking[br]Rails

0:22:18.440,0:22:24.909
an easier choice.

0:22:24.909,0:22:27.820
So ultimately, Rails was successful. But what[br]about the

0:22:27.820,0:22:31.159
future? What does the future have in store[br]for

0:22:31.159,0:22:36.019
Rails? I think that Rails does face challenges[br]in

0:22:36.019,0:22:40.799
the future, because, because the web is changing.[br]What

0:22:40.799,0:22:42.850
people want to do on the web is, is

0:22:42.850,0:22:46.080
becoming different. And indeed the, the future[br]of the

0:22:46.080,0:22:48.870
web I think is even in question.

0:22:48.870,0:22:51.769
So let's look at two challenges to Rails.[br]First

0:22:51.769,0:22:55.999
of all, now that browsers are more powerful,[br]people

0:22:55.999,0:22:58.220
are able to write more of their app on

0:22:58.220,0:23:01.799
the frontend. And so, when you do this, you

0:23:01.799,0:23:05.529
don't need the kind of classic web app that

0:23:05.529,0:23:08.120
Rails is. Rails is really good at generating[br]a

0:23:08.120,0:23:10.620
lot of HTML and shipping it down to the

0:23:10.620,0:23:14.769
client. Kind of the classic web app like base

0:23:14.769,0:23:16.590
camp.

0:23:16.590,0:23:19.200
But when you're writing your entire app in[br]JavaScript

0:23:19.200,0:23:21.649
in the client, what you need is the ability

0:23:21.649,0:23:24.629
to talk to the server with an API. And

0:23:24.629,0:23:28.379
when that's all you're doing, people can question,[br]why

0:23:28.379,0:23:29.860
do I need Rails? Why do I need all

0:23:29.860,0:23:33.210
of this extra stuff that Rails does? I'm,[br]maybe

0:23:33.210,0:23:35.480
I should just use node.js, and then I can

0:23:35.480,0:23:38.100
write, you know, the same language on the[br]client

0:23:38.100,0:23:40.490
and the server.

0:23:40.490,0:23:45.980
Similarly, mobile apps are becoming increasingly[br]popular, because you

0:23:45.980,0:23:47.720
can do so much more with a mobile app

0:23:47.720,0:23:49.980
than you can with a web app. The user

0:23:49.980,0:23:54.169
interaction is much richer and, and faster[br]and, and

0:23:54.169,0:23:58.919
just cleaner. And, again, these kind of apps[br]talk

0:23:58.919,0:24:02.539
to the server with an API. And so people

0:24:02.539,0:24:05.830
think, well, I don't need Rails, then.

0:24:05.830,0:24:07.379
And I think that this, this is a threat

0:24:07.379,0:24:10.659
to Rails. But there's two key things to remember

0:24:10.659,0:24:14.480
about this. One, Rails is great at this kind

0:24:14.480,0:24:18.440
of thing. In our application, we serve hundreds[br]of

0:24:18.440,0:24:23.509
millions of API requests a day, a month, using

0:24:23.509,0:24:25.990
Rails. And the way that we do that is

0:24:25.990,0:24:28.269
not using action Controller.

0:24:28.269,0:24:30.249
But Rails makes it easy to pick out only

0:24:30.249,0:24:33.860
the parts of Rails that you need to use.

0:24:33.860,0:24:35.740
And so you can, you can take Rails much

0:24:35.740,0:24:40.190
further than many people think, I believe.

0:24:40.190,0:24:43.509
Second, even if you are building an API heavy

0:24:43.509,0:24:45.700
app, not all of your app is going to

0:24:45.700,0:24:49.299
be API based. You are going to need a

0:24:49.299,0:24:54.179
management console to handle the backend of[br]your application.

0:24:54.179,0:24:55.899
Pretty much every app has this. You need a

0:24:55.899,0:24:59.399
way to look up your users and, you know,

0:24:59.399,0:25:02.009
change their account status and things like[br]that.

0:25:02.009,0:25:04.639
And, are you gonna build an iPad app for

0:25:04.639,0:25:06.860
that? I don't think so. Because it would be

0:25:06.860,0:25:09.600
too expensive and slow. The web is still the

0:25:09.600,0:25:13.309
best way and the easiest way to distribute[br]an

0:25:13.309,0:25:15.059
application.

0:25:15.059,0:25:17.119
So Rails has a real, I think, has a

0:25:17.119,0:25:20.879
place for that. Or, there's a place for Rails,

0:25:20.879,0:25:24.970
even in an API-driven application.

0:25:24.970,0:25:27.529
But even if the web, as a platform, and

0:25:27.529,0:25:30.309
Rails as a, as a framework, can't adapt and

0:25:30.309,0:25:32.529
fall by the wayside, I think the legacy of

0:25:32.529,0:25:36.049
Rails will really live on for a long time.

0:25:36.049,0:25:40.690
Because this idea of taking things that were[br]possible

0:25:40.690,0:25:44.119
and making them simple, making them easy to[br]do,

0:25:44.119,0:25:47.909
is really powerful. And it inspired programmers[br]in many

0:25:47.909,0:25:52.679
different programming languages to, to copy[br]Rails and to

0:25:52.679,0:25:57.999
try to get those benefits for themselves.

0:25:57.999,0:26:00.149
So I think no matter what the next platform

0:26:00.149,0:26:03.799
is, people will be inspired by that aspect[br]of

0:26:03.799,0:26:06.039
Rails, and they will want to write the Rails

0:26:06.039,0:26:09.009
of whatever.

0:26:09.009,0:26:10.980
I'd also like to look at the reaction against

0:26:10.980,0:26:15.259
Rails. Because that's part of Rails's legacy,[br]too. There's

0:26:15.259,0:26:17.940
two examples that I'd like to talk about here.

0:26:17.940,0:26:21.049
First of all, there's Jengo. So Jengo can't[br]be

0:26:21.049,0:26:26.019
considered to be inspired by Rails, because[br]it was

0:26:26.019,0:26:28.460
developed at the same time or even earlier[br]than

0:26:28.460,0:26:29.309
Rails.

0:26:29.309,0:26:34.049
But since, the, the two frameworks have been[br]really

0:26:34.049,0:26:36.110
similar and, and, and have learned a lot from

0:26:36.110,0:26:39.860
each other I think. But the way that Jengo

0:26:39.860,0:26:42.980
works, it is really driven by the Python philosophy

0:26:42.980,0:26:47.190
of explicit is better than implicit. So in,[br]in

0:26:47.190,0:26:50.610
Jengo, when you, when you like what to map

0:26:50.610,0:26:53.460
up a url on your server, you think really

0:26:53.460,0:26:55.889
hard about what that url is going to be.

0:26:55.889,0:27:00.809
It doesn't happen automatically. And your[br]database models tell

0:27:00.809,0:27:04.759
the database what its fields should be, instead[br]of

0:27:04.759,0:27:08.330
the other way around. In Rails, of course,[br]we

0:27:08.330,0:27:11.809
follow convention over configuration, right.[br]But if you've ever

0:27:11.809,0:27:14.379
tried to teach someone Rails, you know that[br]this

0:27:14.379,0:27:17.889
can be a double-edged sword.

0:27:17.889,0:27:20.190
Convention over configuration lets you write[br]less code, but

0:27:20.190,0:27:23.440
it also makes it less clear what's happening.[br]When

0:27:23.440,0:27:26.499
you're teaching somebody Rails, it can be[br]really confusing

0:27:26.499,0:27:29.330
that you edit a route in this file over

0:27:29.330,0:27:32.200
here and therefore your controller over here[br]needs to

0:27:32.200,0:27:35.850
be named this and it has these methods available

0:27:35.850,0:27:40.639
to it that respond to these HTTP requests.[br]Or

0:27:40.639,0:27:42.320
HTTP methods.

0:27:42.320,0:27:44.059
That is not at all obvious. And so it

0:27:44.059,0:27:49.820
takes time to learn all those conventions.[br]And, I

0:27:49.820,0:27:51.289
mean, I don't think one is better than the

0:27:51.289,0:27:54.320
other. They're just, you know, different sides[br]of the

0:27:54.320,0:27:56.899
same coin. Different ways of looking at how[br]programming

0:27:56.899,0:27:59.480
should work.

0:27:59.480,0:28:01.669
Kind of related to that is the second example,

0:28:01.669,0:28:06.570
which is microframeworks. Like Sinatra. These[br]have been incredibly

0:28:06.570,0:28:09.470
influential. And I love using Sinatra. It's[br]just, it's

0:28:09.470,0:28:11.169
like such a thing of beauty, when you can

0:28:11.169,0:28:13.860
have your whole web app in one file. And

0:28:13.860,0:28:16.539
the, the urls that are, that are in your

0:28:16.539,0:28:19.820
web app are just tightly connected to the[br]code

0:28:19.820,0:28:22.139
that's going to run when someone goes to that

0:28:22.139,0:28:22.999
url.

0:28:22.999,0:28:27.139
It, that is like a really wonderful feeling,[br]I

0:28:27.139,0:28:31.330
think. And Sinatra has been probably even[br]more influential

0:28:31.330,0:28:35.179
than Rails. There are copies of Sinatra, or[br]Sinatra-inspired

0:28:35.179,0:28:39.350
microframeworks anyway, in just about every[br]programming language you

0:28:39.350,0:28:43.460
can think of. Anything from Java to PHP to

0:28:43.460,0:28:48.299
Clojure, Go, JavaScript. Even Haskall.

0:28:48.299,0:28:52.999
All of these have a version of Sinatra.

0:28:52.999,0:28:57.960
And in some languages, these microframeworks,[br]the microframework inspired

0:28:57.960,0:29:00.989
by Sinatra is the default way people write[br]web

0:29:00.989,0:29:05.389
apps. It's the best way that they have. And

0:29:05.389,0:29:07.610
I think that that is kind of a problem,

0:29:07.610,0:29:12.019
because while I love using Sinatra, when an[br]app

0:29:12.019,0:29:14.129
gets above a certain size, I find myself pulling

0:29:14.129,0:29:16.179
in more and more of Rails.

0:29:16.179,0:29:19.509
And at some point I feel, well, I might

0:29:19.509,0:29:22.009
as well just switch to Rails. And so, in

0:29:22.009,0:29:23.690
these, I feel bad for these programmers in[br]these

0:29:23.690,0:29:26.200
other languages, because they don't have the[br]choice to

0:29:26.200,0:29:30.179
switch, necessarily, to something as good[br]as Rails.

0:29:30.179,0:29:31.809
So I think, I think Rails actually has a

0:29:31.809,0:29:34.299
bright future ahead of it, because it, it's[br]shown

0:29:34.299,0:29:38.169
the ability to adapt and respond to change.[br]Think

0:29:38.169,0:29:41.330
about Rails 1 point 2 and the addition of

0:29:41.330,0:29:43.980
REST and making that the default way that[br]we

0:29:43.980,0:29:48.519
think about controllers and resources on the[br]web.

0:29:48.519,0:29:51.739
So I think that if people want to use

0:29:51.739,0:29:55.440
Rails to back JavaScript-based applications,[br]Rails will get better

0:29:55.440,0:29:57.639
at that. And if people want to use it

0:29:57.639,0:30:00.190
to back mobile applications, it will get better[br]than,

0:30:00.190,0:30:02.779
at that. But you'll still have the ability[br]to

0:30:02.779,0:30:05.009
use Rails for what it's good at when you

0:30:05.009,0:30:06.299
need to.

0:30:06.299,0:30:11.619
All right. So we've talked about what programming[br]was

0:30:11.619,0:30:16.610
like in 2004. We've talked a little bit about

0:30:16.610,0:30:19.279
the features of Rails that made people want[br]to

0:30:19.279,0:30:23.230
use it and made it win. And we've talked

0:30:23.230,0:30:26.200
about what could happen in the future. What[br]is

0:30:26.200,0:30:29.210
the, what's the legacy of Rails and will it

0:30:29.210,0:30:33.320
be able to adapt?

0:30:33.320,0:30:35.889
So a hundred years ago, or, actually, more[br]than

0:30:35.889,0:30:39.369
a hundred years ago, when Edward Bellamy was[br]frustrated

0:30:39.369,0:30:41.970
with the way things were going, with how society

0:30:41.970,0:30:45.110
was working, he took up his pen and he

0:30:45.110,0:30:48.789
used his imagination to create a new world.[br]This,

0:30:48.789,0:30:51.580
this utopian novel, where he could explain[br]how he

0:30:51.580,0:30:53.739
thought things ought to work.

0:30:53.739,0:30:56.889
Now, that may seem kind of pointless. Because[br]it's

0:30:56.889,0:31:01.580
the twenty-first century. America is not a[br]socialist utopia.

0:31:01.580,0:31:05.499
But that book was incredibly influential.[br]In the years

0:31:05.499,0:31:09.279
after its publication, hundreds of Bellamy[br]clubs were started

0:31:09.279,0:31:12.509
across the country, and millions of people[br]were inspired

0:31:12.509,0:31:15.499
by the ideas written in the book.

0:31:15.499,0:31:19.690
And those people, and those clubs formed the[br]nucleus

0:31:19.690,0:31:23.799
of the progressive movement in the early twentieth[br]century,

0:31:23.799,0:31:27.239
that broke the trusts and monopolies, and[br]ultimately paved

0:31:27.239,0:31:30.619
the way for social security and the American[br]welfare

0:31:30.619,0:31:31.220
state.

0:31:31.220,0:31:34.059
So the book did have a huge influence on,

0:31:34.059,0:31:35.460
on the world.

0:31:35.460,0:31:37.960
Programming, on the other hand, is a little[br]more

0:31:37.960,0:31:43.929
concrete. So when DHH was frustrated by how[br]programming,

0:31:43.929,0:31:48.489
web programming worked in 2003 or whatever,[br]he was

0:31:48.489,0:31:51.830
able to do something about it. He cracked[br]open

0:31:51.830,0:31:54.289
his text editor and got to work and built

0:31:54.289,0:31:57.139
something that people found inspiring.

0:31:57.139,0:31:59.340
And when they saw it, they wanted to meet

0:31:59.340,0:32:01.679
other people who were interested in that.[br]And that

0:32:01.679,0:32:04.429
was the genesis of the Rails community. And[br]so

0:32:04.429,0:32:09.179
today, you know, we're all here today because[br]of

0:32:09.179,0:32:13.070
the Rails community and because of what, what[br]developed

0:32:13.070,0:32:17.350
over those, those last ten years. So I'm really,

0:32:17.350,0:32:19.830
really pleased to be a part of that community,

0:32:19.830,0:32:23.320
and really honored to be speaking to you today

0:32:23.320,0:32:24.940
about that.

0:32:24.940,0:32:27.259
And it, it's made a huge impact in the

0:32:27.259,0:32:30.489
direction of my career. And I just find it

0:32:30.489,0:32:33.739
inspiring. I find it inspiring that as programmers,[br]we

0:32:33.739,0:32:36.590
can see something that's broken and we can[br]fix

0:32:36.590,0:32:39.730
it. We can create a new reality for ourselves

0:32:39.730,0:32:42.869
with code. And I think that that's a really

0:32:42.869,0:32:45.669
powerful, really powerful notion.

0:32:45.669,0:32:47.519
And we also shouldn't forget the lessons of[br]Rails

0:32:47.519,0:32:50.299
as we did that. Because Rails didn't just[br]win

0:32:50.299,0:32:53.450
because it was, because it was better, though[br]I,

0:32:53.450,0:32:55.629
I do think it was. It won because of

0:32:55.629,0:32:58.600
the community around it and because of the,[br]their

0:32:58.600,0:33:01.679
passion for telling people about what was[br]so good

0:33:01.679,0:33:03.129
about Rails.

0:33:03.129,0:33:06.220
So most of us probably are not going to

0:33:06.220,0:33:10.720
write the next great framework. I, I, I don't

0:33:10.720,0:33:13.879
imagine that I will. But I think that this,

0:33:13.879,0:33:15.919
we can take to heart the lessons of Rails

0:33:15.919,0:33:18.590
in our own work and in the libraries that

0:33:18.590,0:33:19.919
we're writing.

0:33:19.919,0:33:23.179
Don't forget to, to, to try to make things

0:33:23.179,0:33:25.409
easy. To try to make it easy for your

0:33:25.409,0:33:28.679
fellow programmers. And don't forget to tell[br]people about

0:33:28.679,0:33:32.419
it and explain why they should use what you've

0:33:32.419,0:33:34.720
written. And I think if you do that, you

0:33:34.720,0:33:36.640
can help make the world a better place.

0:33:36.640,0:33:37.940
Thanks.