Some Software Was Harmed in the Making of This Site
As noted on the about page, I decided to write my own software to run this site.
The following technologies were harmed in the making of this site:
Ubuntu Linux on VPSLink
VPSLink has good deals on VPS hosting. I pay $24 per month for a 256mb VPS, with impressive uptime. I originally intended to go with Slicehost, but they had no slices available at the time (and didn’t for several months as I recall), but I have not been dissapointed with VPSLink.
Ruby on Rails
I haven’t found a better platform for developing web applications yet, although I’m keeping my eye on the up-and-coming web frameworks in Ruby, Clojure, and Scala. With the merging of Merb into Rails 3, Ruby on Rails looks to get even better.
MySQL
Actually, I like PostgreSQL better, but I run a Wordpress site on my server that needs MySQL so I’m using it for this site instead of running two database servers. I actually tried deploying with SQLite originally, but I ran into issues with it. It takes some doing to make MySQL run well on a memory-constrained VPS, but it’s possible (tip: don’t use InnoDB).
Blueprint CSS
Developing complex layouts that work cross-browser is painful. Blueprint is a CSS framework that makes it less so. It’s currently only used on the administrative portion of the site, but I plan on reworking the main layout with it as well. I’m also planning on playing with 960gs, which is similar (better, in the opinion of some).
jQuery
JQuery is really, really good. I could go into all the reasons why, but Chris Wanstrath and PJ Hyatt already did. I’ve used Prototype for a number of years, and JQuery just seems to fit better. There’s a huge library of plugins available as well. The only downside is the somewhat light documentation available for it, although that seems to be changing.
Capistrano
Here’s my rule for web application deployment: Automate the Very First One. This really makes all the difference in the world, especially for side projects like this. When deploying is trivial you will do it all the time. As I was working to get this new site out the door, I spent part of an afternoon at the local coffee shop to fix the few remaining issues with the code and get the server configured. In that time, I deployed the site 6 times. My point: deployment has to be easy or you won’t do it. Capistrano makes it easy.
Phusion Passenger
I’ve always used Mongrel for hosting Rails apps but Passenger (aka mod_rails) is the new hotness in Rails hosting, and with good reason. Once it is configured on your system, web deployments become very easy. There’s almost no setup, and you don’t need all of the monitoring infrastructure that mongrel requires. It runs under Apache, and as a result uses somewhat more memory. This is certainly offset by the ease of use and administration.
Ruby Enterprise Edition
Provided by the same folks who brought you Passenger, REE reduces the memory usage of your Rails application by roughly 30%. On a memory constrained VPS such as mine, this is a huge deal. I was a little concerned about running a different version of Ruby than the one I was accustomed to, but lots of people are running REE these days, and to date I have had no issues.
So that’s the tech behind this site. As I add some additional functionality here, I will be bringing in a few other things, and I will write about it as I go.
Git
Git has a steeper learning curve than Subversion, but it’s definitely worth learning it. It’s blazing fast, clean, and has some impressive features, particularly around merging. For this project, I just used it locally, without ever pushing to a server. I’d recommend using it even when you’re not collaborating with other developers.
So, what did you use to build your latest project?