nimbletoad blog

We are hard at work building out Vinecat, an online wine cellar manager. Our goal was to allow anyone to have easy access to their wine cellar no matter where they were. However, we might have set our sights a little too low.

Leave it to the French to kick it up a notch. Why stop at cellar data? It looks like they have figured out a way to give you access to your actual wine. Anytime… Anyplace… All that you need is WIFI and an open USB port.

….Now my humping dog USB key is officially lame.

The web app platform Rails, built upon the Ruby framework, has enjoyed a rocketing lead in the publicity arena with all the press generated by 37 signals and their opinionated founders. In contrast, Django, built upon the python language has gained popularity while staying out of the limelight.

Over the past month the tide has begun to turn thanks to the help of Google. When Google’s Application Engine is released to the general public it will run on the python language and come pre-installed with Django.

While Google is considering offering other languages at a later date, at this point Python and Django are the Belles of the Ball.

At Nimbletoad we use Django, built on the Python framework, and Rails, built on Ruby, everyday to speed up web development. While our staff is equally divided between the two framework’s and endless debates ensue as to which is better, no one argues their merit.

Rails and Django, creations of David Heinemeier Hansson and Adrian Holovaty respectively, allow web developers to program and deploy web applications in a fraction of the time.

The key here is that their creations ride on top of existing programming languages. Without them, Web development would still take place. The end results would be the same. However, these two guys saw a way to create frameworks that would further boost functionality.

Functionality is the desired result, While Creativity the guiding force.

Just as David and Adrian stood on Ruby and Python’s shoulders, web development companies such as Nimbletoad stand and build upon the creations of David and Adrian.