After spending a lot of time looking at Ruby examples when comparing RIFE to Rails, we realized that we would be better off dropping Java and re-implementing the framework in Ruby completely. The main driving force was that the RoR acronym would both apply to Rife on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Imagine the productivity gain when only having to use three letters to refer to both projects. We started doing the port about a week ago and already finished 80% of the original functionalities. The whole project took us almost 4 years to write in Java!

Since our 2-man team has released 4 products and 12 sites with RIFE and Java during last year, we didn't want to let those efforts go to waste. We thus also started work on an automated conversion tool that ports old code to the new version. All Java and XML code is translated effortlessly into neat and concise Ruby.

You can look at the current state of our efforts by checking out the subversion repository. Even though we haven't formally released anything yet, we've been using this branch extensively in production for over three days and invite you to do so too!

After having spent 3 months working hard to get the new Fumble web site running perfectly with RIFE, I decided to change my approach for the sibling Grumble site that is somewhat similar in functionality.

Instead of just using the raw RIFE approach, I started with what I now call RIFE/Fumble and woooow ... it was up and running in a matter of seconds. In a single line I already had a functional site. The only thing that was left to change was the design, some configuration settings and a couple of additional code snippets here and there. RIFE/Fumble has really changed my life and I can't image ever having to code another site without it.

It's addictive, every line I write just works exactly as I want, and instantly! I spent 60 days writing this with raw RIFE before, and I did it now in 2 days with RIFE/Fumble, that's a 30x improvement in productivity!!! I still have the last 20% of Grumble to write but since everything went so fast, I'm sure it will be done in the next couple of hours!

Mark my words, RIFE/Fumble will revolutionize the world of web application development. Don't even think of trying it out without being prepared to suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms when you have to go back to raw RIFE afterwards!!!

(disclaimer: this story is purely fictitious and any resemblance to real projects or testimonials is purely coincidental)