A problem with Open Source technology is knowing which of the plethora of tools and libraries to use. Is this framework stable? Does this language have staying power, or is it just a fad?
In July 2010 I created a “Stack of the Month Club” spreadsheet to compare technologies with some of my developer friends. I have a couple friends that try new technology sooner than me, and I like to get recommendations from them. In particular, I like to wait and see what sticks. I don’t want to adopt something too soon.
We just updated the spreadsheet with our current favorite platforms, libraries, tools, and even font-sizes. Obviously, you have to use the right technology for any task, and there are pros and cons to everything. A couple of the trends I was looking for:
- Is node taking over for Rails? (no)
- Ember, backbone, or knockout – what’s winning? (too soon to tell)
- Is MongoDB still cool? (apparently yes)
For my stack, you can download my Rails Bootstrap project. I created it to make it easy to get started at a Startup Weekend or hackathon event.
If you know me, and want in on the action – please drop me an email and I’ll add you to the spreadsheet. Otherwise, save a copy of this doc and start your own!
I’ve added your Rails Bootstrap project to the list of Rails starter apps I’ve compiled at http://railsapps.github.com/rails-examples-tutorials.html.
This is pretty funny, and its true. There’s a huge amount of flipping around about what the ‘cool new tools’ are this month. How many of those ever get used on a production app, I don’t know. Just keeping up with the javascript front end frameworks and tools is nearly impossible. I feel the Rails stuff has slowed down a hair, but maybe I’m just getting better with it.