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Distributed Ruby - Exploiting ‘Enterprise’ Software
Enterprise.
Even saying the word can send shivers down the spine of the ‘enlightened’ developer. It can conjure up thoughts of gargantuan XML configuration files tied down with lashings of buzz, pomp and sales patter. Of documentation and usage so verbose that the eyestrain is almost palpable from the mear tonguing of the term. However, sometimes, on rare occasion, our gut is wrong and our reaction foolish because out there in ‘enterprise’ land are some truly fabulous nuggets of software. In this posting I will be looking at one such ‘diamond in the rough’ and seeing how we can exploit it in rubyland.Distribution.
In the sense of networks within software systems, distribution has near boundless uses; session sharing, shared processing, file access, logistics, analytics, etc., however its implementation is non-trivial. It is, in fact, a bloody hard problem to solve requiring schemes for; networking, fail-over, discovery, clustering, events, backups, locking and more besides.
