Building Distributed Applications
by Mark Bates
Building multiple applications that all need to share data and other information between can be a
daunting and challenging task. Mark will help to demystify the use of Ruby systems such as Rinda and
DRb and show you how they can be used to link applications together. Through the development of the
Mack framework and its use in building Helium.com, Mark will share the highlights and the pitfalls
of distributed application development.
About Mark Bates
Mark Bates has been a Ruby developer for three years now, with a near lifetime of Java and PHP
behind that. He's currently the Director of Architecture for Helium.com, a Rails/Mack based citizen
journalism website. He's taught Ruby/Rails training courses in the Boston area. At RailsConf 2008 he
chaired a BoF session on Rails Alternatives. He's authored two recipes for the Advanced Rails
Recipes book, and is currently filming a series of screencasts for the Pragmatic Programmers.
In February 2008, Mark, began development of the Mack framework. Mack aims to provided a simple,
easy to use, Ruby based web framework that makes developing distributed, portal-like web
applications a snap. With features such as distributed routing, objects, and views/layouts,
developing multiple applications that link together has never been easier. In June 2008, Helium.com
made a significant investment in Mack by assigning Mark and two other developers to the project full
time.