Hey there folks-
I'm happy to announce the first useable release of my new pocket-framework Merb. Merb is a mongrel handler with built in controller and view templating with erb. It has a nice routing system similar to rails but much simpler. It uses some of the code from the camping handler and the rails handler and then some of its own secret sauce to form imho a nice fast little framework.
ActiveRecord is supported as shown in the sample app. Merb does not use cgi.rb at all(yay!) but can handle file uploads very well. See the sample app. And it can process concurrent file uploads without blocking. Merb also supports the X-SENDFILE header so you can set that header to a path to a file in your controller and then mongrel will serve it directly and your controller can continue on to the next request.
Merb is a pet project of mine but was born out of real life need. I am using it in combination with rails apps that need a lot of file uploads or need to serve some dynamic pages faster then rails will allow. Right now Merb performs very well for a dynamic ruby framework thanks to mongrel being very fast when it doesn't have the Rails Albatross ™ on its back. Serving a dynamic templated page thru merb routing and controller with 10 ActiveRecord objects being listed out in the view, merb clocks in at 400req/sec on my macbook and a bit better on a real server. Static files are served as fast as mongrel can.
I am using this along side a rails app by rewriting requests to a suburl to the merb mongrel like /foo -> merb handler. I am investigating making it possible to mount merb at a url in mongrel itself along side a rails app but I have to do more testing to see how that affects everything.
If you want to play along at home you can do this to get a quick start:
$ sudo gem install merb $ gem unpack merb $ cd merb-0.0.3/examples/sample_app # edit the conf/merb_init.rb to add your database password info. # then add a posts table to your db with a title and body column. $ merb start -t
Then you can browse to these urls to play around.
http://localhost:4000/posts/new or http://localhost:4000/posts/list or http://localhost:4000/uploads/start
Here are the relevant links if you want to get involved with Merb development.
http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=2383 http://merb.devjavu.com/ http://svn.devjavu.com/merb http://brainspl.at/articles/2006/10/15/merb-gets-cool-routes-and-file-uploads
Keep in mind that Merb is only a week or two old and is changing fast! If you want to get in on the ground floor and help me add to the base system then you are most welcome. On the other hand, if Merb kills your children I am not responsible 
Thanks for playing!
Cheers-
-- Ezra Zygmuntowicz-- Lead Rails Evangelist -- ez@engineyard.com -- Engine Yard, Serious Rails Hosting -- (866) 518-YARD (9273)
