Ethical Software by Alex Bunardzic

I’ve been doing Ruby on Rails for more than 2 years now. Over a year ago, I went Java and .Net free, throwing myself head first into Ruby and Rails.

During that time, I’ve been focusing on building a comprehensive next generation product, that is entirely web based and founded upon the principles of Resource Oriented Architecture. But after expending two years of unwavering effort, I’ve decided to throw the towel in and switch back to developing in Assembler. Here are the reasons why I did it:

Is there anything Ruby/Rails can do that Assembler can’t do?

For 2 years I though Rails is genius, Assembler is passe. But is it really? I mean, think about it — is there anything that would not be possible to do in Assembler? Given enough time, stamina and mindless determination, one could code pretty much anything in Assembler. So, boo to Rails!

What about the integration?

What better way to integrate to any legacy software than to drop down to the metal? At the bits and bytes level, any software looks like any other software. Big win for Assembler in this regard, big lose for Rails.

Don’t want what I don’t need

Rails comes prepackaged with tons of crap. Do I need that? Heck, I don’t even understand it, let alone need it!

Assembler, on the other hand, comes with just a small handful of handy operations (shifting bits etc.) Perfect for the radical simplicity kind of a guy I am.

It’s small and fast

As mentioned above, small and slim, Assembler is THE fastest code on earth. Ruby and Rails are so far away down the food chain when it comes to instructing the machines, it’s not even funny.

It’s built to my tastes

My tastes are simple — load a small chunk of info into the cubby hole, juggle it a bit, shift it left or right, push it, pop it, that kind of thing. That’s as abstract as I like to get. Assembler serves my tastes perfectly in that regard. Ruby and Rails — not that much.

I love bits and bytes

Like I’ve mentioned above, bits and bytes are where abstraction is at. Think about it — anything under the sun, any concept that humans care to formulate, are easily expressible using bits and bytes. Do we need anything more than this perfection?

Programming languages are like generals: they are all smart after the battle

Even though I’m abandoning Ruby and Rails and going back to my first love — Assembler — I am not saying that I haven’t learned anything from Ruby. After the battle, all generals are smart. That’s the easy part.