Ruby Mendicant Project Selected

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi Folks,

I'm happy to announce that after donations closed, I received a total of 22 weeks of funding. After inviting the community to participate in open discussion on the Ruby Mendicant mailing list, as well as considering the various emails and conversations I've been having over the last few weeks, I've decided on the project I'll work on.

I will spend the next several months building top-notch PDF support for Ruby. This will be a brand spankin' new pure Ruby library, designed to be fast, tiny, and nimble. I plan to support both Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 from the ground up, and will be using PDF::Reader as much as I can to do some automated testing.

Though this library will aim to eventually replace PDF::Writer, it will likely be many months before this is possible. In the meantime, Mike Milner and I will continue to maintain PDF::Writer. I am hoping that my work on this new library will help me find and fix issues in PDF::Writer more easily, which means that even if you're not in a hurry to try something new, this project may still benefit you.

The name I've chosen for the new PDF library is Prawn. Though it may be a bit quarky, I think you will agree that it will be difficult to confuse with the Ruby PDF project, and that it also represents one of the most majestic sea creatures to ever live.

Anyway, that's the news for now. Please join the Ruby Mendicant mailing list to keep up to date on project announcements. I won't be announcing my planning details to ruby-talk but you'll catch those resources on the Mendicant list when they become available.

http://groups.google.com/group/rubymendicant

Thank you so much to those who supported this project through donations and kind words of support and advice. Please continue to stay active in the process by getting involved in Prawn when development starts up around April 15th.

-greg

2

I can imagine the conversations now:

Worker #1: Hey have you seen this new Prawn? Worker #2: Yeah, the one with Jenna Jameson in it? Worker #1: What? Worker #2: The porno. Worker #1: NO! The P-R-A-W-N. New PDF library for Ruby. Worker #2: Oh.

3

I’m happy to announce that after donations closed, I received a total

of 22 weeks of funding.

That’s awesome news!

I will spend the next several months building top-notch PDF support

for Ruby. This will be a brand spankin’ new pure Ruby library,

designed to be fast, tiny, and nimble. I plan to support both Ruby

1.8 and 1.9 from the ground up, and will be using PDF::Reader as much

as I can to do some automated testing.

Though this library will aim to eventually replace PDF::Writer, it

will likely be many months before this is possible. In the meantime,

Mike Milner and I will continue to maintain PDF::Writer. I am hoping

that my work on this new library will help me find and fix issues in

PDF::Writer more easily, which means that even if you’re not in a

hurry to try something new, this project may still benefit you.

Sounds like a fantastic idea! Thanks for letting us all know. I look forward to all the fruits of this project!

Blessings,

Jeff

4

Actually, I am happy with PDF::Writer. What can beat the writer is more flexible reporting feature, support for HTML and CSS parsing, so it's possible to use rhtml / HAML templates to generate reports, and extended support for the charts.

All the Best! Sergey.

Gregory Brown wrote:

5

Are you talking to the ruport guys?