Release video for Glimmer DSL for Web (Award-Winning Frontend Framework for Ruby on Rails) version 0.10.5 (Before & After Mutations): https://youtu.be/BJ0oSsyddMg
Monday, September 14, 2026
Support Award-Winning Open-Source Projects for the Benefit of the Ruby Community!
I got a weird message from a dev on LinkedIn sharing with me a Frontend UI he built in Opal Ruby, supposedly as inspiration by my library Glimmer DSL for Web (award-winning Opal Frontend Framework for Rails). Except, he said at the end that he didn't use Glimmer DSL for Web, yet used Opal Ruby directly. The guy claimed he wanted to "experiment" with not relying on the MVC pattern. Except, every Software Engineer worth his salt should already know the difference between View code that mixes Model and Controller concerns by not relying on MVC (like Views from the early PHP era) and View code that separates them following MVC, which is what makes MVC so vital to ensuring correct separation of concerns, maintainability, readability, and simplicity. Such an experiment does not provide any new information that wasn't known 20 years ago. I took a look at his codebase. The code was very horrid and horrible. It was over-complicated. It was exactly what I built Glimmer DSL for Web to simplify and avoid.
This is a big problem in the Ruby community today. Not building on top of good ideas already implemented and available in some open-source projects, yet re-inventing the wheel unnecessarily with inferior solutions. Like, I ran into someone who rewrote ERB to supposedly "improve" (inside-the-box-thinking) it instead of ascending higher to better solutions (outside-the-box-thinking) like using an HTML DSL like Glimmer's or Phlex's, objectively superior for so many reasons. At RailsConf 2014, one of the keynote speakers, Yahuda Katz, alluded to how Rails provides a framework that elevates people by having basic building blocks ready to go so they could start constructing a building with the first 10 or 40 floors done already (not the exact words, but that was the general idea). That's exactly what Glimmer DSL for Web aims to provide for the Frontend of Rails web apps! It offers all the building blocks needed to build any Frontend Web UI with the simplest code syntax possible in any programming language. So, when people ignore it, they just go back to starting at the first floor. Extremely unintelligent.
I told that guy that he wasn't really inspired by me if he didn't use Glimmer DSL for Web. I asked him why he was seeking a non-MVC solution. He didn't respond. I messaged him again on LinkedIn a number of weeks later reminding him he didn't respond. He never got back to me. So weird! This came across as the guy intentionally trolling me with this whole exercise, just to intentionally create an example of not using my library where the library is most perfect to use. I would literally delete and simplify a lot of his code if his web UI Frontend was built in Glimmer DSL for Web. He didn't seem sincere in his message given his lack of follow through. Needless to say, after I did some research on the guy, I found out he's an uneducated person with no university degrees in any computing related fields (like Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering or even computing heavy fields like Math, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, or Biology), meaning basic Software Engineering concepts that are expected as foundational knowledge in professional Software Engineers are not available in his repertoire, which would explain why he was trying to do something as senseless as avoiding MVC.
Avoid being like this guy and help open-source projects that have already solved interesting problems with very good innovative solutions that won awards! Especially a Ruby project that won an award by the creator of the programming language it uses. Such projects have already been proven. They just need your support to go further for the benefit of the Software Engineering community as a whole. Use them and provide feedback. Any time you spend not using such projects is wasted on inferior solutions. Build 3rd party libraries on top of them. Contribute features and bug fixes to them. Contribute documentation. Don't just branch off on your own and re-invent the wheel if it isn't necessary or useful. That's very unintelligent and counterproductive for the Ruby community.
Monday, September 07, 2026
Glimmer DSL for Web 0.10.4 Insert Mutation
Release video for Glimmer DSL for Web (Award-Winning Frontend Framework for Ruby on Rails) version 0.10.4 (Insert Mutation): https://youtu.be/dzAOUKzuvu8
Monday, August 31, 2026
Glimmer DSL for Web 0.10.3 Append & Prepend Mutations
Glimmer DSL for Web 0.10.3 Release Video: https://youtu.be/weLqzmaIUeo
Sunday, August 23, 2026
Glimmer DSL for Web 0.10.1 Auto-Conversion of Date/Time Element Values + New Sample
Monday, August 17, 2026
One of The Dumbest Questions Asked on Ruby/Rails Subreddits
One of the dumbest questions I see asked on the Ruby/Rails subreddits is "Are Ruby & Rails still worth learning today?" (plus other variations, such as "Are Ruby and Rails still relevant today?" and "Are Ruby and Rails dead?"). Are you stupid!?!! Obviously, if you ask such a question inside an online community of devs who make a living with these technologies, they are going to answer "yes" (to the first version of the question)! But, more importantly, any Software Engineer worth his or her salt would be able to answer such a question for themselves by doing their own research, spending an hour or a few minutes at least trying out the new technology they are asking about, and building a list of pros/cons/trade-offs to compare the technology to others. Lastly, if you rely on the words of others instead of your own ability to reason in Software Engineering, then you are letting others think for you instead of thinking for yourself, meaning you are surrendering your competitive advantage and weeding yourself out of the competitive pool, so it would be a bad idea to hire you regardless of what skills you have in Software Development. This is how idiots end up using a terrible garbage library like React.js in an otherwise pristine elegant Ruby on Rails web app codebase. Honestly, if you're too lazy as to answer that question for yourself while idiotically posing the question to a group of devs where the majority would answer "yes" to learning Ruby/Rails, then you won't be considered or get hired at any of the good jobs I've worked at. Initiative and analysis skills matter a lot in Software Engineering job candidates and nothing says there is zero initiative and no analysis skills than lazily asking a question that a Software Engineer should be able to answer for themselves.
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
XO Ruby joins RubyConf/RailsWorld as Another Exclusive Discriminatory Unexcellent Conference
So, I got contacted by the organizer of the XO Ruby conference (aka Travelling Ruby), Pascal Laliberté, on meetup.com because I organize the Montreal.rb Ruby Meetup and am a Montreal-based Expert Ruby Software Engineer. He said XO Ruby is coming to Montreal and asked me for help with it. We end up meeting in a video conference call.
To help out, I indicated that I asked my company to consider sponsoring the conference. Furthermore, I volunteered to give a talk as a Montreal-local Ruby Expert (given I have won 2 awards by Matz and have spoken 4 times at RubyConf and 2 times at RailsConf, plus 2 times this year at Ruby conferences in Europe, including this talk that I shared with him); I offered to ask my company's former CTO (who is still with us in a different position) to give a "Founder" topic talk (one of the topics of the conference) about how to be a Tech Founder for a Ruby on Rails project (our previous Montreal-based Fintech company is a huge success story as we got bought by a larger Silicon Valley Fintech 1.5 years ago that is a leader in the Credit Union AI/Agent Conversational Software space); and I offered to recommend other potential Ruby speakers from Montreal.
After everything I volunteered to help with, Pascal strangely seemed to push back against me giving a Ruby talk at the Montreal-based XO Ruby even though there are empty slots left and I am literally one of the biggest representers of Ruby in the Montreal Tech community today (not many Ruby Software Engineers from Montreal present at RubyConf like I have in 2022/2023/2024, and no one from Montreal as far as I know has won awards by Matz, the creator of Ruby). I've also put in many many hours and days into keeping the Montreal.rb Ruby Meetup going, including giving extra presentations myself whenever needed, and that's in addition to the many many hours and days I've put into Ruby Open-Source Projects. Honestly, if an interviewee at a job interview I am conducting had reacted with that sort of apathy after hearing my accomplishments, they'd be cut immediately from the interview process due to being apathetic instead of passionate, and due to not appreciating excellence, as only unexcellent people don't appreciate excellence. Truly excellent people always appreciate excellence and excellent accomplishments, while maintaining an attitude of curiosity about them.
I asked him how many talk slots are left in the conference. He said there are about 9 slots and about 4-5 are left, including empty slots for the "Open-Source Projects" topic. Then, he started trying to explain that he wanted a very technical Ruby talk (it's a weird note given Glimmer DSL for Web is one of the most technically interesting and innovative Ruby projects ever with its ultralight, expressive, and minimalistic DSLs). So, I told him I've given talks at many Ruby/Rails conferences and meetups on a variety of topics, including Domain Driven Design, Design Patterns, Object Oriented Design, Desktop Development, Frontend Development, and DSL Engine Meta-Programming, plus I have literally won an award from Matz, the creator of Ruby, last year for my Open-Source Project, Glimmer DSL for Web (in addition to winning another award a few years ago for Glimmer DSL for LibUI), so I can easily give a strong Ruby technical presentation. The weirdest and creepiest thing is Pascal's face was so apathetic when I was recounting all my Ruby accomplishments as if they don't matter. That's not the reaction of a strong ethical Software Engineer who cares about the fact that past Ruby accomplishments have benefited many customers and continue to benefit customers directly or indirectly today.
Then, Pascal said he could not guarantee a slot for me despite having empty slots, believe it or not, without providing any valid reasons! I told him given that I am 100% qualified to give a talk at the conference, this is discrimination! After all, if I wasn't qualified, or even had some competition, I could understand not being guaranteed a slot. But, I am the only one in the Montreal community who has won awards from Matz, my new innovative open-source project has no competition, and no Software Engineers in Montreal have represented Ruby as much as I have in recent years through continued effort in fostering the local Ruby community with running the Montreal.rb Ruby Meetup. Meaning, this is 100% discrimination.
To give a point of comparison, I was literally hired instantly at my current company a number of years ago (when we were still a small startup before acquisition) because my boss appreciated all my Ruby accomplishments and knew that I had a large enough body of work in the Ruby community (many RubyConf/RailsConf talks and Ruby open-source projects) that demonstrated my Ruby skills beyond the shadow of a doubt and warranted instant acceptance of me. My boss back then who was the CTO at the time is a Super-Duper Ultra Strong Software Engineer/Architect/CTO by the way, so he knew what he was doing.
Any normal competent ethical strong Software Engineer would have been absolutely excited to have me talk at their Ruby conference (like the organizers of wroclove.rb and RubyConf Austria), especially that I have won an award from Matz himself, the creator of Ruby. They would have been 100% curious to learn what the award-winning project is all about and would have wanted me to share that knowledge with others in the Ruby community for the benefit of customers (not for selfish reasons).
I responded to Pascal further by telling him that his conference practices discrimination and is an unexcellent garbage conference that is way below my standards for how a Ruby conference should be (it should be non-discriminatory and appreciative of excellence that wins awards from the creator of Ruby). So, I don't want to participate in it anymore nor help it. The fact that the conference doesn't immediately accept a talk by someone who won awards from the creator of the programming language that is the reason for the conference existing means it is a trash conference. It can't possibly be sharing top-level Ruby excellent knowledge, yet lower-level mediocre knowledge. I told him I was ending the video conference call because discrimination is not acceptable anywhere in Canada. It's funny how this creepy unethical guy was trying to act as if he's "more important" than me when in fact he probably doesn't have half my accomplishments. This reminds me of this blog post about entitled people in the Ruby community, which applies to him as well.
The crazy thing is he tried to interject and say things about "my behavior" towards the end of the video call when in fact his behavior was already bad through discrimination and lack of appreciation for excellence, so if his behavior is already bad, he is in no position to judge anyone else's "behavior"! My behavior is exemplary in the Montreal Ruby community over many years.
One other thing worthy of note that relates to discrimination is that at one point, Pascal tried to focus the conversation on the pronunciation of my last name, which felt uncomfortable and felt as if he was trying to pigeon hole me into whatever "country of origin" my heritage belongs to instead of just treating me as a 100% equal Canadian (as I am a 100% Canadian after all). I have just completed my employer's yearly training for workplace prevention of abuse, harassment, and discrimination. And, such behavior came up in the training as "discrimination based on the country of origin". When he asked about how my last name is pronounced, I told him my last name is just pronounced like it's written in English, with the end being silent, similarly to the pronunciation of the word "melee" (meaning a skirmish). To be honest, over the years, I have received that sort of discrimination from a number of people in Canada. It's disappointing that some people in my country, Canada, discriminate against others based on their country of origin, sometimes in very subtle ways with plausible deniability (this was blogged about as covert discrimination). I had less experience of that discrimination when I lived in the USA in the past during the first 10 years of my career. It's ironic that the international stereotype of Canadians is that they are nice people, but in actuality, some of them (not all) apply "niceness" with a double standard (which is not nice), treating people in their in-group nicely and treating others in their out-group not nicely at all. That's something I have experienced by some of the people who work for Shopify in the past (this blog post by Paul Battley and this blog post by André Arko confirm my experience of Shopify being mean). Fortunately, I work with very nice people at my company's Montreal branch and I have a very nice French Canadian girlfriend too.
Another thing worthy of note is that this XO Ruby conference is associated with Jim Remsik who runs Falgrant. In a past RubyConf that I presented at, at which I met Jim Remsik, I literally saw swag/stickers by Flagrant that included the F word, which were very unprofessional and disrespectful. Professional Software Engineers who don't make it a habit to drop F bombs at work would not use that sort of language in business marketing material as that immediately reduces a company like Flagrant into a trash company that spreads unethical trash with every interaction they have with others. I removed Jim Remsik from my LinkedIn in the past after I noticed that just as I removed Pascal Laliberté from my LinkedIn today after our video call.
I have mentioned this before; from the perspective of discriminators who have an unconscious or conscious in-group/out-group bias, it doesn't matter if someone from the out-group has launched rockets to the moon successfully with excellent effort, as they would still get treated as if they are unequal unimportant people and as if their accomplishments don't matter (in spite of having practically benefited many customers directly or indirectly with their accomplishments).
In conclusion, to avoid enabling discrimination and unexcellence in the Ruby community, avoid attending, sponsoring, and presenting at XO Ruby. Also, know that it is a mediocre garbage conference that is way below the high quality standards of Ruby Experts like me for excellence and ethics.
P.S. Of course, as with my other blog posts, to prove that I'm on the right side of things, I acknowledge that nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Meaning, I am always open to the idea of forgiving people if they redeem themselves. So, if Pascal was to apologize about his discrimination/lack-of-appreciation-for-excellence and allow the most active Expert Ruby Software Engineer in Montreal to present at a Montreal Ruby conference, I'd be happy to retract this blog post. Otherwise, if I am wrong about something and it was kindly, patiently, and respectfully explained to me with genuine loving intentions, I'd be happy to reverse my position too.
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