# Current State of Merb

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 9, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005 "2007-02-09T06:16:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/liquid)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005/1 "2007-02-09T06:16:53Z")

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Hi all,

I’ve been looking around for details on Merb and what it’s being used  
for  
etc but I can’t find a great deal. Most of the information is “Merb is”  
style instead of a howto.

I’m wondering if it’s because it’s young, or people prefer camping/rails  
over it.

From the time line it certainly looks like Ezra is working hard on it.

Any insights/opinions would be great

Cheers  
Daniel

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**Author:** ![liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/liquid)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 9:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005/2 "2007-02-09T09:42:08Z")

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On 2/9/07, Ezra Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > 
> 
> Hey Daniel-
> 
> ```
> Sorry the docs or tutorials for merb are non existant. Such is life
> 
> ```
> 
> when things change fast. I am almost done with a 0.2 release and feel  
> like merb will be api stable and usable enough to finally write some  
> nice tutorials. I have been playing fast and loose with code and  
> features while I develop my ideas for merb so things change fast.

I hope my comment did not come across as a critisism. I did not mean  
it be. I’m just looking to see how much info there is at the moment.  
I’m quite happy to dive in and try it out for myself.

> ```
> As to what people are using merb for. There are a number of folks
> 
> ```
> 
> using merb to serve high traffick image upload/download type sites.  
> Once of them is handing 250K uploads a day for the last month or so  
> on one 15Mb merb process! But merb is also being used all on its own  
> for full app development. It does take a similar path to rails on a  
> number of things, but diverges and uses as little magick as possible.  
> Kinda like a magick removal branch of ActionPack with thread safety  
> and performance as a primary concern.

I’m looking for a framework smaller than rails for a small ammount of  
ajaxy stuff, with a few pages, but served fast. I also need to  
thumbnail images with most requests so threading is a must. I think  
camping might be a little too simple though. Merb looks like the  
right fit from what I’ve seen so far.

> ```
> If you want to get involved with writing merb apps then the best
> 
> ```
> 
> thing you could do is try to build a little project, ask me for help  
> via email or tickets to trac or come to the irc channel #merb on  
> [irc.freenode.net](http://irc.freenode.net) with questions. Then maybe write up a little blog  
> post or tutorial to help others start using merb.

As soon as I get a chance I will try to do this.

> ```
> I'm into merb for the long haul and I plan on it staying highly
> 
> ```
> 
> focused light to medium sized core framework that gets out of your  
> way and lets you code in more of a plain ruby stryle then some of the  
> railsisms that makes some stuff hard to deal with in the rails source.
> 
> ```
> A tutorial site will be up soon with a wiki and docs and tutorials.
> 
> ```

Both great to know. I see from the Time line on trac that you are  
commiting to it every day. Man you put out a lot of stuff.

Thanx for the information.

Daniel

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/liquid)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 7:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005/3 "2007-02-09T07:50:00Z")

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On Feb 8, 2007, at 9:16 PM, Daniel N wrote:

> over it.
> 
> From the time line it certainly looks like Ezra is working hard on it.
> 
> Any insights/opinions would be great
> 
> Cheers  
> Daniel

Hey Daniel-

Sorry the docs or tutorials for merb are non existant. Such is life  
when things change fast. I am almost done with a 0.2 release and feel  
like merb will be api stable and usable enough to finally write some  
nice tutorials. I have been playing fast and loose with code and  
features while I develop my ideas for merb so things change fast.

As to what people are using merb for. There are a number of folks  
using merb to serve high traffick image upload/download type sites.  
Once of them is handing 250K uploads a day for the last month or so  
on one 15Mb merb process! But merb is also being used all on its own  
for full app development. It does take a similar path to rails on a  
number of things, but diverges and uses as little magick as possible.  
Kinda like a magick removal branch of ActionPack with thread safety  
and performance as a primary concern.

If you want to get involved with writing merb apps then the best  
thing you could do is try to build a little project, ask me for help  
via email or tickets to trac or come to the irc channel #merb on  
[irc.freenode.net](http://irc.freenode.net) with questions. Then maybe write up a little blog  
post or tutorial to help others start using merb.

I’m into merb for the long haul and I plan on it staying highly  
focused light to medium sized core framework that gets out of your  
way and lets you code in more of a plain ruby stryle then some of the  
railsisms that makes some stuff hard to deal with in the rails source.

A tutorial site will be up soon with a wiki and docs and tutorials.

Thanks-  
– Ezra Z.  
– Lead Rails Evangelist  
– removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
– Engine Y., Serious Rails Hosting  
– (866) 518-YARD (9273)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/liquid)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 4:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005/4 "2007-02-09T16:12:47Z")

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On 2/10/07, Chris C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> going, it works great!
> 
> If you want to use AJAX I suggest you try out this like:  
> [ajax and camping, together at last « evan weaver](http://blog.evanweaver.com/articles/2006/07/23/ajax-and-camping)
> 
> –  
> Chris C.  
> [concentrationstudios.com](http://concentrationstudios.com)  
> [brynmawrcs.com](http://brynmawrcs.com)

Thanx for the heads up Chris.

I’m really new at these micro frameworks, just trying to get my head  
around them at the moment. It looks really lightweight.

Cheers

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/liquid)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 3:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005/5 "2007-02-09T15:58:44Z")

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On 2/9/07, Daniel N [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I’m looking for a framework smaller than rails for a small ammount of  
> ajaxy stuff, with a few pages, but served fast. I also need to  
> thumbnail images with most requests so threading is a must. I think  
> camping might be a little too simple though. Merb looks like the  
> right fit from what I’ve seen so far.

I just want to point out that Camping is almost never too simple. I  
have had huge apps written in camping. It is hard to get used to at  
first, how to structure controllers and stuff, but once you get it  
going, it works great!

If you want to use AJAX I suggest you try out this like:

> **[ajax and camping, together at last](https://blog.evanweaver.com/2006/07/23/ajax-and-camping/)**
>
> I had to mock up a demo for Intel for my work and went with \_why’s Camping. However nobody on the IRC channel the other day knew how to use ajax with it. It turned out to be easy.serve static files…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@liquid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/liquid)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/current-state-of-merb/85005/6 "2007-09-25T23:04:51Z")

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On 2/9/07, Daniel N [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > first, how to structure controllers and stuff, but once you get it
> 
> I have a question on Camping Chris. Can I use MySQL or only sqlite?

You Can use MySQL with a postamble.  
[http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/camping/wiki/PostAmbles](http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/camping/wiki/PostAmbles) Choose the  
right one for your server (Probably Mongrel) and replace the setup  
stuff for sqlite with the data for MySQL, takes teh same options as a  
database.yml file in rails, just in hash form.
