# Is this a reasonable application for Ruby?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-this-a-reasonable-application-for-ruby/79361>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 10, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-this-a-reasonable-application-for-ruby/79361 "2006-03-10T06:21:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joep)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-this-a-reasonable-application-for-ruby/79361/1 "2006-03-10T06:21:43Z")

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I have a box that retrieves data from a weather station as well as a  
number of video cameras. I would also like to grab some graphics files  
from external FTP sites and execute some gimp comands to generate  
animated graphics. There are a number of other data sources that I  
would like to access, parse into xml files and upload to my web app.

Also, I have to develop some routines to deal with recovery from  
unexpected program termination (we live in an area with unreliable  
power). I need to develop routines that figure out what time it is when  
they wake up, and execute specific applications at required times.

Are these reasonable applications of ruby? Since I am going to be  
learning Ruby anyway for RoR, I thought maybe I could use Ruby for this  
kind of task rather than trying to do it all in MS Dos Batch files  
(which would require re-learning the intracacies of DOS).

Thanks,  
joe

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@joep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/joep)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 7:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-this-a-reasonable-application-for-ruby/79361/2 "2006-03-10T07:25:11Z")

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Joe P. wrote:

> …  
> Are these reasonable applications of ruby? Since I am going to be  
> learning Ruby anyway for RoR, I thought maybe I could use Ruby for this  
> kind of task rather than trying to do it all in MS Dos Batch files  
> (which would require re-learning the intracacies of DOS).

Yes. The devil is in the details, but overall these are reasonable  
tasks for Ruby.

There are nice libraries for working with ImageMagick (not sure about  
GIMP), plus Ruby ships with the REXML XML parser. (And you can use  
libxml as well, if you prefer, thanks to recent reactivation of that  
project.)

–  
James B.

“A principle or axiom is of no value without the rules for applying it.”

- Len Bullard