We're using rack-test for our Cucumber specs. We've been trying to migrate over to Ruby 3 for a while now and the current issue is that the Cucumber tests crash due to rack-test using both keyword/positional args in their internal methods.
I'm up for patching it myself, but seeing how little activity there is on the repo (including PRs open for weeks/months) I fear that I'd do the work and there would be nobody to patch it.
The only alternatives I see are:
Do the work and pray there will be someone to review/merge the changes
Patch it locally & use the patched version locally from now on (yuck)
Find an alternative solution for rack-test
The last solution seems the best IMO. So, are there any alternatives?
As with all open source software, you have a few options:
Keep using the old software version (i.e. don't use ruby v3.0.0).
Hope that someone else updates the dependencies for you.
Do the update yourself.
Stop using the library.
At the moment, option 1 is totally viable; ruby 2.7 is still actively maintained, and support will probably continue until 2023-03-31. You could do this, simply hoping that option 2 becomes available soon.
The standard practice for option 3 is:
Fork the project, and make the fixes.
Open a pull request to the main repo with your fixes. Hopefully it gets merged.
In the meantime, if you need to be unblocked, reference your forked repo in other projects.
This is clearly more effort, but I wouldn't call it a "yuck" solution; not unless your changes are drastic/introduce compatibility issues with the main project, and the two branches diverge.
As for option 4, as with virtually any library replacement, there's always going to be some trade-off between compatibility/features, but clearly other testing frameworks do exist. It depends how you are actually using it. Your mileage may vary.
In summary, I can't really give an objective answer to such a subjective question, but my advice at the moment would be: If you have time/skill/motivation to update to ruby 3 right now, then fork the dependency and update it. (It's probably not a massive change needed!).
But if you lack the time/skill/motivation to do this, then just stick with ruby 2.7 for now.
We are investigating possibility of using BeanShell to write scripts that do a lot of file operations.
Currently bash scripts are used.
Now the main question is - is BeanShell stable at this moment?
I know that it is not actively supported , but does that matter? Are there bugs?
What about BeanShell2? Is it original plus some bug-fixes? Or are there other changes?
I am also wondering if at this point in time using Groovy is better given that it is actively supported and developed by Pivotal.
Any additional information regarding pros and cons of either Bash scripts, BeanShell and Groovy scripts is greatly appreciated.
You really haven't given us much to go on here. No specifics about your environment, not much in the way of criteria. Nothing really about the problems that you are trying to solve with scripting. You are clearly thinking about moving away from bash for some reason, but you haven't really told us why.
If you are comfortable with bash, then I agree with #Nick Ellis. Stick with it.
However, if for some reason you are determined to choose either Groovy or Beanshell, the choice is pretty clear. Groovy is a well-supported language whose user base and application base are both growing by leaps and bounds. Beanshell... not so much.
I searched around to understand the current situation a few months ago and here are my findings.
Original release from http://www.beanshell.org hasn't been updated since 2.0b4
In maven repository, last release from benshell.org is 2.0b5 on Jun, 2005.
In 2011, beanshell2 was forked. Last release was v2.1.8 on Feb 20,2014. This fork is never released to maven repo.
In 2012, there was a discussion on apache commons-dev to adopt beanshell.
In 2013, it was reminded that it was not voted on incubator list.
Shortly after, it was proposed and voted on incubator-general.
But then, it was followed by a discussion that it should be put into sandbox.
In 2015, beanshell2 was cloned to github from google code.
Also on 2015-09-23, apache-extras repository was moved from google code to https://github.com/beanshell/beanshell/. (I missed the creation of original repository)
I would stick with bash. Even if one of these scripting languages is better in the sense that it has features you want, is easier to use, or has more support, you still need to switch from bash to this other language. Furthermore bash is drastically more common and well known, which means it is easier to find people who know it and find solutions on line. Without a very strong reason, such as a feature you need that bash doesn't provide, it seems like making the switch would be a lot of trouble without gaining much ground.
Adding to #hsib answer, There's a new 2.0b6 version:
2016-02-18 Security update
Note: A security vulnerability has been identified in BeanShell that could be exploited for remote code execution in applications that has BeanShell on its classpath (CVE-2016-2510). The vulnerability has been fixed in the security update BeanShell 2.0b6.
I'm using both scrollTo and the "child"-plugin serialScroll quite frequently, and like them because they
Actually SCROLL things, rather than animating css-properties (margin/position etc)
Are flexible and can be used in many different situations, unlike lots of other scroller/sliders that adds a bunch of bells and whistles that you don't really need.
Thing is, the plugins haven't been updated since 2009, and although they still work just fine, regardless of jquery version, there are things that could need improving (like the ability to change settings after initilaisation), and overall it doesn't fell optimal to use a 3 year old plugin, solid and stable as it is.
Does anyone have a suggestion of other plugins that might do the same thing, perhaps better?
http://flesler.blogspot.se/2007/10/jqueryscrollto.html
This is an old question, but for the record, as Shauna said, the plugins aren't outdated, OP might have been looking at Google code hosting which is indeed out of date.
The plugin is now hosted on Github. There's no much of a need to update it too often given it's very stable already, but I do land some commits every now and then when needed.
I don't have a suggestion for anything better (even Google is coming up with Flesler's plugin or hand-written from base JavaScript or jQuery), but Flesler is still updating the plugin. You can find the latest version in GitHub.
A wee while ago I ended up on a page which hosted several ruby tools, which had 'crazy' names like 'mangler' or 'executor' or something. The tool's job was to modify you production code (at runtime) in order to prove that your tests were precise.
Unfortunately I would now like to find that tool again, but can't remember what it was called. Any ideas?
I think you're thinking about Heckle, which flips your code to make sure your tests are accurate. Here:
http://seattlerb.rubyforge.org/heckle/
Maybe you're thinking of the Flay project and related modules:
http://ruby.sadi.st/Ruby_Sadist.html
Also you can try my mutant. Its AST based and currently runs under MRI and RBX in > 2.0 mode. It only has a killer for rspec3, but others are possible also.
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When you are starting a personal programming project, what is your first step? I'm trying to start a project thats just an idea at the moment. I get lots of these and I dive right into the code and after a while just completely lose interest and or just forget about the project.
When you are starting, what is your first step? do you plan out the project? make a diagram? write some code on paper? How do you start a project in a manner that you know you will succeed?
The only thing that works for me: Create the smallest possible implementation of it that's somehow usable and then use it.
From 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit 2: Begin with the End In Mind.
With any project you need a clear goal, a point where you can say "I'm finished". A clear outcome will give you direction. Once you have that, you can start planning how to get there. The size and complexity of the project will determine how much detail your plan needs, but in general you'll want to feel your making progress against your plan quite regularly.
My next step is to sketch out a design of the modules that will be needed and the APIs between each module. If the APIs are clean then the modules are probably right. Then I start implementing the modules, testing as I go.
I spend a lot of time thinking about the various aspects of the project before I even touch a keyboard.
I go through what I've learnt from previous projects and write it down in various categories ('technical', 'promotion', etc)
Personal project or not, I always set up source code control. Git, Mercurial of Bazaar are examples of source code control tools that are not intrusive because you do not need to set up a master server. Just type a simple command to create the project, check your files in, commit. In the future, when you mess up one of your files, you will be able to 'undo'
I also set up a lightweight ticket system to keep track of 1.issues and 2.ideas
By "lightweight" I mean that if maintaining two text documents with these lists works for you, that's good enough.
Hope this helps.
I agree with the already given advice of:
Planning a minimal implementation that does something useful as a first complete release.
Have concrete goals about what you want to achieve to have something to compare your progress with.
I would also recommend beginning with a lightweight design of you overall architecture so you can have a roadmap of how to build your product.
I find it difficult to start building something when I don't have a clear idea about how it should look at least at a first level of decomposition. Think about what do you need besides functionality: high performance?, extensibility scenarios?, which ones?, usability goals?, high scalability?, ease of deployment and installability?, etc. Ask yourself: What components I will have to build in order to achieve those architectural qualities?.
And don't get me wrong, I'm a strong proponent of agile software development. You don't need to spend a lot of times designing your architecture (because it surely will have to evolve as you build and get feedback about what works and what doesn't), but having a blueprint of how to build your product based on its architecture should be useful in for planning your progress and setting realistic goals.
Define the goal for the project. Sounds like you are looking almost exclusively at the solution rather than the problem.
A program isn't useful to you or anyone else unless it addresses some problem. Writing code to get moving is great, but you appear to lose interest and focus after you start -- because you're looking at the code, not the problem.
Spend some time considering what led you to write this code. Ponder how other people might discover the same need, what path might take them to the same frustration you worked to solve.
Then, find some of those people and offer your (partial) solution, and you'll generate interest and suggestions among them all.
THAT will keep you going on your project. The fellow interest, the sharing, even the disagreements -- it's people who need software! Don't create solutions (software) looking for a problem (people). You started with YOU, with your need or desire, but focused on the code, and lost the impetus for the project.
Programming's a lot more fun when you're problem-solving. But you need to keep the problem in front of you. Sharing the problem builds community. That's what this is really all about, isn't it?
For my own personal projects I just dive right in. Of course, none of these have yet been sufficiently large as to require any sort of pre-planning. If this is going to be a serious project or a relatively large scale, it is always a good idea to flush out at least what each part of the program needs to do and a high level view of how they will do it.
Like the others, my personal projects always have:
A Final Goal
A Task List
Small usable units
Source control
As an additional motivator, I try to use a technology that I have never used before. Learning something new generally becomes the largest motivator for me.
Easy - don't start at all projects you're likely to lose interest in. Spend more time to make sure you want to commit yourself to an idea before beginning any work.
It depends on the project - how big is it?
If I'm writing the next Notepad clone I might just dive in, if I wanted to roll my own operating system it'd take a lot more non-coding work.
I like to do a lot of diagrams, the tool I use for most development is clean A4 paper and a pencil. Draw out the UI, workflow, basic classes, and how you're going to store any data - then the coding is just a computer readable way of writing what you drew already.
Source control le.g. SVN is a couple of keystrokes/clicks, so the overhead is low and the benefit is high, its handy to try stuff and just revert to an earlier state if they don't work.
Then just make the most basic protoype that will work - once something is actually going it is much easier to get enthused and add more. If it is overwhelming I'll find I think the problem is solved in my head, and thats enough.
First plan out the basic outline of the final application. Most important features, basic GUI, program flow, etc. Then refine that so that you don't take on too much at first, remove unnecessary features, and add what else you want in the first version. Then use that outline to start a task list to create the smallest possible working version of your application. Then it's much easier to add extra features and make it fully functioning.
I like Maximillian's answer.. to expand a little, my person projects are developed to solve something I'm working on already. So when I get tired of repeat work I'll prototype a solution. and then use it. If Its similar enough to one of my earlier projects I'll borrow as much code as I can and try to improve the level of my work, make it more professional.
Fusion's use of Source Control is important too. Takes 2 minutes to install SVN.
If you want to turn it into a public open source project, Producing Open Source Software is supposed to be a good read (available both online and in print).
If your personal project is similar to an existing open source project, you should consider contributing to that project instead. A couple of small contributions (bug fixes etc.) are
more valuable than a half finished project.
All of the above, but start to cement the plan in place.....
Go for some tools
SmartSheet - even if you are working on your own you should set out some stages and dates
yEd - and Graphity from www.yworks.com