Ruby, rake and some more XML bashing
Obviously I’m not much of an XML fan, a system built on legacy that I believe to have some uses but not at pervasiveness level of today. It has not much of a flexibility when you try to describe behavior. Like Java/.Net/C++ programmers prefer to do whenever they try to avoid writing code. It might work with inflexible static typed languages like these, as you actually may gain flexibility by opting for XML.
With Ruby it’s different, as writing XML is much more difficult. You are not tempted to implement an XMLish domain specific language. Take for example the omni-deployed Java build tool ant. It uses an XML based syntax to implement domain specific language of software building. And all this comes with a cost. Ever observed how much XML gibberish you have to write just to implement a simple task. Do you actually use a text editor for changes? Probably not.
Ruby counterpart for ant is rake and it is a lot more simpler. Inside rakefiles you’ll see plain old ruby code. You can use a text editor for making changes in a terse and flexible language.
