Best source code for up and coming Rubyist [closed]

Question

Okay, so I have a question for all you professionals out there. I have been doing Ruby and Rails for about 3 years, and I am really starting to get the advanced architecture concepts and have been digging into a few gems to learn as much as I can without getting over my head. In particular, the Mechanize gem has really captured my attention. I have a degree in Statistics, and I like the Mechanize::Chain mechanism for what I assume represents a "chain of events". There may be great potential here for learning something that would help me with modeling Markov Chain Monte Carlo Stochastic processes.

My question is this: Can anyone recommend a gem or framework or code that is: a) well documented - and by this I mean explanations of how the thing works will help bring me up to speed quicker with advanced concepts -- not just source code docs. b) complex, but not too complex, so that it takes for ever to grok! c) will allow me to learn more about gem architecures and how they fit into the rails ecosystem.

Thanks again! Love you people... Really do.

Answer 1

Yes!

Authlogic may well be the most complex, well documented, and interesting gem I've ever read. It's a beautiful display of how a gem should be built. That said, I don't use Authlogic, but only because I like authentication to live in the Rack middleware. If you are interested in Rack and gems that play with Rack, try reading through Warden. It's similarly elegant and pretty interesting.

If you want some mindblowing reading, dig into the Unicorn source code. They play with parts of ruby you probably didn't know existed, namely Kernel interaction.

Also, and somewhat obviously, the Rails source is a great thing to read through, especially since Rails 3.

It kinda depends what you want to accomplish with your gems, but these are some good starting points. The best thing you can do is to go straight to the source when you have a question instead of going to documentation. It'll be slower at first, but eventually you'll just become a super ruby ninja.