[Cuis] [web] Nancy

[Casey Ransberger]

So I'm a fan of this minimalist web framework for Ruby named Sinatra. 

I had the idea a couple of years ago that I'd like to do something similar for Smalltalk. Squeak is still a very fat server, so Cuis seemed a good host environment. 

The cool thing about Sinatra is that it's bare-bones. The other cool thing about it is, you can just drop in whatever tech you want to use while you worry about the details. Want a canvas-style API for generating HTML? Drop in Erector. Etc., etc.

Seems like we should have something like this in the Squeak community, because Seaside -- while very powerful -- is also very complex and it would be difficult for the minimalist crowd (read: us) to keep pace with it and incompatibilities we have with Pharo.

Cuis is the right foundation to build a Sinatra-like library on, at least right now. It also fits well with our one-human, one-machine understanding ethic. 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I have (in my mind's eye) a web framework for Smalltalk called Nancy, after Frank Sinatra's daughter. I stumbled over the HTTP layer a bit because protocols are not my profession, and Andreas unexpectedly passed. Sounds like someone has handled the problem of making his web stuff work on our system, and a lightweight, flexible web framework for Cuis seems like a timely adventure, now. 

I'd like to recommend visiting http://www.sinatrarb.com, and pay attention to do...end. See that this approach is elegant and flexible, that it lends itself identically to Smalltalk block closures. 

If you think I'm not nuts, and you'd like to jump in on this idea, please do reply. If I have more than one taker, maybe we can make a summer project of it. Start serving our own source code!

Cheers,

--C