The last of the Merb 0.5.x line

Just a few minutes ago I tagged and released Merb 0.5.3 “Inexperienced With Girls”, and it should be on the gem servers soon. This is (hopefully) the last of the 0.5.x releases of Merb. It’s the last unless something horrible is wrong with it.

Starting …. now .... we’re really focusing on the 0.9 code, which has some significant changes in terms of process. First and foremost, we’re using git to manage the development, instead of Subversion. Also, we’re splitting the codebase up into merb-core and merb-more, to balance that delicate line of “super small and focused yet feature-rich”.

If you’d like to see where things are headed, here’s the repos on GitHub:

• merb-core
• merb-more
• my experimental merb-core

One of the super cool things about GitHub is that it makes hosting a fork of a project trivial. One of the super cool things about git is that it makes cherry-picking changesets from one tree to another really easy. Combine those two things, and you get a completely different development style than with central-repo projects.

Right now, my experimental merb-core is the same as upstream, but I’ll be doing stuff in there that may or may not be ready for official merb. I’ll let you know if there’s anything interesting in there.

The release of 0.9 is planned for February 8th, IIRC. There’s a lot to do, but we’ve made a lot of progress. My next task is to make sure the preliminary 0.9 upgrade checklist that wycats made is all that’s needed (it can’t be that easy, can it?) and then go through merb-core and make sure all the HTTP compliance and support is good.

Baby Pool

I had planned to run a baby pool, but then talked myself out of it.

Emily’s readers have talked me back into it.

So, it’s a “getting-down-to-the-wire-but-we-still-don’t-know-pink-or-blue” baby pool.

To enter, email me (ivey at gweezlebur.com) and tell me a date and pink or blue. You need to get both to win the grand prize, whatever that is. People who get the date only will get something fun. People who only get pink or blue will get the satisfaction of having won a 50-50 coin flip.

Oh, tell me if you’ll want a regular prize or a yarn related prize.

To sum up:

  To: Michael Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com>
  From: You
  Subject: Baby Pool Entry for Your Name

  Blue/Pink
  Feb. 31st
  Prize w/ extra fiber, please

Good luck!

Another change in '08: I'm going to Engine Yard

As I hinted on Twitter earlier in the week and announced today, I’ve accepted a full-time position at Engine Yard starting on Monday.

I cannot overemphasize how much of a change this is for me.

I haven’t worked for someone other than myself in nearly 5 years. No employment agreements. No phone extensions. No email addresses I didn’t assign for myself. No direct deposit.

In fact, I even went so far as to say that I probably wouldn’t work as an employee for anyone else ever again.

And yet, a few days after a 3 line conversation on IRC, I was signing employment agreements, getting a phone extension and a new email address (why does it have to be mivey ... ugh) and sending in a voided check.

Why would I do such a thing?

Because Engine Yard kicks ass, they’re committed to seeing good people write good code that helps their customers be successful, and the team they’re putting together is absolutely first class.

I’ve been an EY customer for a while. I know they do good stuff. I’ve seen first-hand the difference between other hosting companies and EY. Other places give you an IP and a login, and you’re on your own. EY deploys your app for you. Ezra literally wrote the book on Rails deployments. If your app breaks, they help you fix it. Need help scaling? Just ask.

Plus they’re fully committed to Ruby as a serious platform. They’re supporting Evan’s work on Rubinius and of course they are the best place to host Merb apps. A significant chunk of the Merb core devs now work for EY. If your Merb app needs some help, who else would you want to work on it?

And now I get to work with these people every day.

So yeah. It’s weird to be working for someone else. Really weird.

It’s going to be great, though. I can’t wait to get started.

PS: they just raised 3.5 million in VC money to continue to grow.