nwrfc 0.0.8 gem is out
I have just published a new version of the nwrfc gem with (as usual) very minor updates.
Ruby wrapper for NW RFC SDK using Ruby-FFI
I have just started a project on GitHub for a library that I am writing which wraps the NW RFC SDK library using Ruby-FFI.
Javascript-style object-value assignment in Ruby
While I was working in Javascript extensively for a project, one of the things I really liked about it was how you could use the dot notation to access members of an object, just as you would call methods. After that, I would often find myself in an IRB shell, absent-mindedly trying to do the same thing with a Ruby Hash, only to be thrown a NoMethodError. The first reaction might be: “Ah, if only Ruby had this feature like Javascript does.”, but of course, it can!
Bitmap font tileset with Ruby and Imagemagick
My latest undertaking is writing mobile apps with Java ME. A problem I bumped into was creating tiles for bitmap fonts to use for displaying text in an application, in lieu of the Graphics.drawString() method, which may not always produce the most suitable output. Here I show you how you can use a Ruby script combined with ImageMagick to create a usable bitmap font tileset for your app.
Improved ABAP Source Code Search
In my last post I showed you how to create your own searchable index of ABAP source code using Ruby in conjunction with the Ferret and saprfc extensions. Today I am going to show you a hugely improved version that will reduce the indexing time and give you a nicer search interface. (Amazingly, this whole thing came in rather handy for me in the last week!)
Custom ABAP source search with saprfc and Ferret
Today we are going to build our own search engine to search through ABAP source code on an SAP system using our favourite language – Ruby! (With the help of some nice libraries). Sure, there is the “Find in source code” option in SE38, and apparently you can use TREX as well, but this is much more fun.
UPDATE (19 June 2009): Refer to the next post for an improved version of the solution.
Netbeans 6.0 M9 – now with Ruby + Rails support!
Oh boy, it seems everyone is jumping on the bandwagon! I’ve just been over to Netbeans, where I saw that there is a preview release (M9) of Netbeans 6.0, and lo and behold – Ruby and Rails support! Mind you, I never bothered to check whether someone had created Ruby/Rails plugins for Netbeans, so I’m not sure whether this is the culmination of long-term work from another project. It sure comes as a surprise to me!
Ruby: The excitement mounts
It was with great excitement that I went to the Post Office yesterday to fetch my two Ruby books that I ordered from Amazon: Programming Ruby and Agile Web Development with Rails. Since starting to delve into Ruby a short while ago, I have fallen head over heels for this once obscure programming language, and the web framework that everyone has been talking about for so long.
Why I stopped reading why
(Stop! Don’t read this. Someone hacked my WordPress site many years ago and wrote this filthy rubbish. I wish).
Like my friend Helmut, one of my ambitions is to conquer the Ruby language, and then move on to Rails, the web framework that catapulted it into web history fame. He has gotten much further in his endeavours though, having managed to read through the whole of why the lucky stiff‘s book “A (poignant) guide to Ruby“. I haven’t.
(When I wrote this, I was a fair bit younger and much unwiser. The truth is, communities grow around guys like whytheluckystiff. When I think back to that awful time that why (the guy we now know as Johnathan Gillette) disappeared, I got this sick feeling in my stomach. What if he had read my blog post and decided that he could no longer do this for ingrates like the stupid guy who wrote this blog? Why, if you are out there, I am so, so sorry man. For what it’s worth, I ended up going back and reading that crazy book of yours. And I enjoyed it. It’s a true work of art.).