After several months of keeping it under wraps, I’m happy to officially announce my own web framework to the world. It’s called Ruby on Crack and will be released by RailsConf 2008. The name of the framework was chosen because I wanted to push the idea of a complete break from the existing Ruby frameworks, a clear cut, if you will.
Rails is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s very opinionated. If you need to get things done in a different way, coding in Rails can become a burden. More reasonable from this viewpoint is Merb, but it’s still somewhat too close to Rails. Ruby on Crack is very different. A programmer using Crack no longer has strong opinions or is constrained within the rules defined by the framework. The only guiding principle is FUD (Fast Useful Development), but you get to decide your own specific style of web development. The framework is very modular and each component is connected to another one through a unified API called PIPE.
According to my preliminary tests, using Crack makes you 5 to 10 times more productive than using Rails. Not only that, but speed wise, you’re running much faster with Crack. Ruby on Crack ships with two extremely fast web servers, as opposed to WEBrick with Rails, called Purebred and Fat. Purebred handles requests by spawning new threads, while Fat uses an event based approach. From what I’ve seen so far, they easily outperform any other existing webservers, to the point that I was able to serve a sample app at a rate of 10,000 requests per second on commodity hardware.
Part of the speed boost that Crack can give you, is due the highly efficient, thread-safe and powerful ORM called Freebase. Even Datamapper is really slow compared to Freebase. On average, Freebase smokes ActiveRecord (it’s 4 to 5 times faster) and it can take advantage of advanced database features which are not supported in ActiveRecord, Datamapper, Og or Sequel.
I don’t want to reveal too much right now, but Ruby on Crack is truly a revolutionary approach to web development and makes you value the true power and colorful nature of Ruby. All of this will be explained in detail in future posts, and the code will be released into the wild for all to enjoy within the next couple of months. It took a lot of effort to get my team to work on Crack, but the results are rather satisfying. Don’t just take my word for it though, here are a few testimonials from prominent figures in the community who’ve had a chance to use the closed beta of Ruby on Crack:
“Those who use Crack can really appreciate the beauty of Ruby.” — Matz
“Fuck You” — DHH
“Incredible framework. I plan to publish a book about it ASAP, and I’m sure that it’ll be the first in a long series of books that I’ll write while using Crack.” — Dave Thomas
“Crack is what we really needed at Engine Yard.” — Ezra Zygmuntowicz
“Wow, what an eye opener. Crack made web programming fun again.” — Obie Fernandez
“You ass#$!@ m0#@#!@&%$” — Zed Shaw
“Once you have tried Crack for the first time, you realize how addictive it is. I simply can’t go back to Rails anymore.” — April Pesce
“Web 3.0 will belong to those on Crack.” — Tim O’Reilly
“If there is something that the Ruby community got right it’s Crack. I wish Python programmers were on Crack too!” — Guido van Rossum
“This is truly innovative and a godsend for startups. Give us about 6 years and we’ll have Arc on Crack too.”- Paul Graham
Get more stuff like this
Subscribe to my mailing list to receive similar updates about programming.
Thank you for subscribing. Please check your email to confirm your subscription.
Something went wrong.
Antonio had the good will to share his Crack with me last week and I can honestly say my life will never be the same again.
I thought I was productive with Rails, but the ease of development and the sheer performance of Crack are astounding, and we’re talking prerelease code here.
Really looking forward to the official release.
Get out! ;-P
DHH and Zed Shaw quotes are a tad too realistic. 😉
Can’t wait to try crack ! I have tried other ruby frameworks such as pot but crack beats pot 10000 fold.
Can’t wait to get my Crack!
Can’t wait for the official release ..
Well, it *is* April 1st, is it not?
lol, very good…
I can’t wait to “fill my bowl”…
Late Breaking News : Ruby on Crack will be announced as IronRuby.
April fool?
Almost got me!
April 1!
hahaha …
the best April Fools Day gig 🙂
LOL, especially Paul Graham…
Oh… it was an April fool??? (drops crack pipe…)
funny idea but everyone by now hates 1. april 😉
i like the quotes though hahaha
Im working on Ruby on LSD 😉
I like The quotes too :):)
I can Say This is Perfect Lie
I take LSD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Shore_Drive) before programming Ruby at work.
The first time a security flaw is discovered in your new framework, the headlines will read:
“Crack has been Cracked”
Enjoy April 1, 2008
Hi,
Are talking about Metaweb Freebase?
Great news! I’m afraid there will be great aversion to Crack, though, especially on the corporate world. Maybe you could distribute some schwag in conferences.
Awesome!
Had a great time reading this!
well
i have read this today, and only reading the testimonials from prominent figures lighted me 🙂
BTW I do not think the Ruby community needs another framework!
Damn! I must have been snorting too hard again. Seeing things…and believing it was true.
Was this just an April Fools joke, or is there any truth to it? It sounds like a SNL ad to me.
Yes Mark, it was a joke. 🙂
awesome work Antonio. Can’t wait to see it!
Crack Rocks!
Pure awesome!
Reading the DHH quote was like like getting hit in the forehead with a brick made of funny.
I would so use Ruby on LSD!!!!!
I read this a couple days ago. It wasn’t until yesterday that I was thinking “Wait… that was kind of ridiculous… I wonder if that was an April Fools Day joke”
And alas… It was. I was fooled for quite a while.
I can’t wait
Where can I get the code 🙂
Got me…lol…damnit.