Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional
posted by pete on July 23rd, 2007
It was June of 2006; Jeffrey Allan Hardy, Cloves Carneiro Jr. and I road-tripped to the very first RailsConf together in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, Cloves moved to Dubai to bring Rails to the indoor ski mountain and really tall hotel set. Meanwhile, I was so impressed with Jeff that I all but demanded he come and join the Unspace team. A year on, Jeff commutes 1.5 hours — each way — three days a week.
It is with great pride (and calculated prejudice) that I am able to announce the publication of Jeff’s first book, “Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional” through Apress. A labor of love over the past year, I’ve watched Jeff work with a revolving cast of co-authors. He’s had his target audience, scope and title change. The poor guy just soldiered on and today we can celebrate his efforts.
Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional
Somewhere along the way, Hampton came on board as technical reviewer. He committed a chapter on Active Record, and another one on deployment. He and Jeff even sequestered themselves in a Niagara Falls hotel room for a week of serious power-writing. It was a long journey, but it was well worth it.
Beginning Rails is the practical starting point for anyone wanting to learn how to build dynamic web applications using the Rails framework for Ruby. It’s the perfect book for someone that has some web development background, or perhaps someone involved in a startup, who wonders how they can use Rails to bootstrap an application in weeks instead of months. It assumes basic familiarity with the technologies that make up the web, but doesn’t require that the reader know how to program, how to configure a web server, how state is maintained on the web, or how to create and connect to a database.
This book does not delve into every arcane detail of Ruby, or Rails. Instead it focuses its energy on the pieces of the framework that most developers use most of the time, and seeks to assist novice developers in getting started on the right foot.
There is one strange detail to report, however. Jeff wanted the Rails logo on the cover of the book but was informed by Apress that David Heinemeier Hansson has been “politely resisting” permission to use the logo, and has said in the future, it will only appear on his books.
Sure enough, the Rails site does indicate that he holds the trademark on the logo. However, I see David as a community steward, and take issue with his refusal to allow the Rails logo on any books other than his own. My reason is simple: rails.png is part of Rails, and is in every new project. Rails is licensed under MIT and that would imply that putting the Rails logo on a book about Rails is a clear fair use. If David wanted to set up a vetting process for good quality control, I’d support that. Beginning Rails is a good book, though, and deserved to have the Rails logo on the cover.
July 23rd, 2007 at 10:36 PM
Congrats to Jeff …. I am so impressed with his work, and dedication to making the most of Rails for our application. Re rails.png … thats just plain wrong, and a great example of open source falling into the old proprietary traps. Why doesn’t the community create their own logo?
July 24th, 2007 at 08:47 AM
This is indeed correct. The use of the logo is restricted as it always is when talking about a trademark. When the logo is used in a commercial setting, such as part of the promotion of a book, it legally requires that the trademark holder has been involved and stands behind the quality of the book. If that’s not the case, you’re on the way to lose your trademark.
So I only grant promotional use for products I’m directly involved with. Such as books that I’ve been part of the development process for or conferences where I have a say in the execution.
I simply don’t have the time (or, frankly, the inclination) to be intimately involved with every book being written about Rails.
There are lots and lots of open source projects that operate in exactly the same manner. You can’t use the logo of MySQL, JBoss, or most other open-source projects that have trademarked logos and names to promote your products without the consent and quality control of the trademark holder.
The fact that rails.png is part of Rails is not related to this point. The image is only included because it’s used on the “Welcome to Rails” screen you get when you start your new project. Not because it’s intended to be used in whatever promotional context you see fit.
In addition, MIT is a license that gives you certain rights (mostly do whatever you want, just don’t sue) to the actual code of a project. It has absolutely no say, authority, or implied rules or rights about trademarks that are associated with the presentation of that code.
Trademarks are like commit access for brand use. Just like not everyone have commit access to the Rails codebase in order to ensure quality, not everyone gets to commit the Rails logo to their own promotional campaign.
July 24th, 2007 at 09:48 AM
I’m with Dave. He could have made the trademark open to the public if he had wanted to but chose not to. There are good reasons for that. It doesn’t harm the open source nature of the code base. It just restricts the marketing efforts of others in a perfectly reasonable way. It’s not much different from protecting the copyrights of his books.
July 24th, 2007 at 09:54 AM
Colin Henderson: If only the logo were trademarked, sure, but the actual term “Rails” is also trademarked, so any logo you wanted to make might not even be able to use the word in it anyway (it would depend if DHH decided to defend the textual terms).
July 24th, 2007 at 12:59 PM
I would most definitely seek to enforce all the trademarks of Rails. But the code is open source. So if this bothers you dearly, you’re always free to fork and call it Pete’s Swanky Framework, design a logo for PSF, and invite everyone to use that for whatever they like. You might not be able to sell a lot of books out the gates for PSF, though.
July 24th, 2007 at 01:11 PM
David, I’d be interested to know when and for what reason the decision was taken to trademark the logo and restrict its use with respect to the community funding of the initial design.
July 24th, 2007 at 01:22 PM
Isn’t the suggested use of the logo in many ways (including ethical) contradicts with the origin of the logo?
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/RailsVisualIdentity
http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2004/12/28/open-sourcing-the-rails-logo
July 24th, 2007 at 01:29 PM
Thijs, I believe that DHH has already answered your question…
“You can’t use the logo … [snip] ... to promote your products without the consent and quality control of the trademark holder.”
I think it’s quite clear that DHH, and the rest of the Rails core team, care deeply for the framework and are putting a lot of effort into it, as well as effort into protecting it. Allowing third parties unlimited access to the logo, would result in widespread use and that use could be perceived as official endorsement from the Rails core team.
By retaining rights to the logo, the Rails team have easy means of endorsing products, conferences, sites, etc. By giving unlimited access, that would quickly become dilluted.
As for the book, it looks interesting, and will probably be on my list of stuff to read during the next few months.
July 24th, 2007 at 06:39 PM
writing a book is such a massive task. congrats to jeff & co. on getting Beginning Rails done.
July 25th, 2007 at 03:49 AM
I am still not sure. Rails trademark in hands of single person? Whilst more people payed for it? I am no saying that Rails trademark should not be protected. But since the code is open and the logo comunity funded why gets one single person have the say who gets to use it and who has not?
July 26th, 2007 at 01:53 PM
Because he can :)
July 27th, 2007 at 02:20 AM
Rails trademark usage governed by the capricious will of a single person? That scares me.
Ruby on Rails is clearly a community effort: the Ruby language, the Active Records idea and many other pieces of the Rails framework originated in the open-source community. Moreover the framework itself is currently maintained and improved by a large and active community.
In my opinion, the actual trademark owner (DHH) should start a non-profit organization and write down some precise guidelines for trademark usage. Of course the purpose should be to protect the Rails trademark for the benefit of its open-source community and not to let a single person profit from the brand through “approved” conferences, books, magazines, etc.
Good examples to imitate are the Linux Mark Institute and the Python Foundation.
July 27th, 2007 at 03:50 PM
This is an interesting debate, in general, as to how the Rails logo can and should be used. (I most like Pereira’s suggestion above.) But I’m curious about this specific case: DHH, why would you specifically not let Jeff use the logo?
As someone familiar with Jeff’s work, I’m sure this book is Excellent. He has been using Rails for years, and has done a lot to evangelize the framework in Toronto and abroad, including presentations at RailsConf in North America and Europe.
We all agree that protecting the Rails brand is important, but putting the Rails logo near Jeff and his work can only be a good thing.
July 31st, 2007 at 03:10 AM
This interesting discussion continues here: http://www.rubyinside.com/david-heinemeier-hansson-says-no-to-use-of-rails-logo-567.html
August 4th, 2007 at 07:42 PM
Look, let’s not do anything to piss off DHH. We totally OWE this guy.
Make up another logo.
ps. DHH – thanks, man.
August 7th, 2007 at 07:11 PM
???
I’m basicly learning my first programming language to become a web developer; the office I’m at has started me on “Practical Rails – Social Networking Sites” for my learning and first learning project.
Do readers here think that is a reasonable novice book to begin, or is Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional a more more appropriate guide?
August 9th, 2007 at 04:09 AM
@Andy I would suggest the following learning path: 1. Beginning Ruby (Apress) 2. Beginning Rails (Apress)
Practical Rails – Social Networking Sites could be the next in line (if you want to build social networking sites)
August 12th, 2007 at 09:20 PM
@Terry: There’s a word for an environment where we’re avoiding saying things that might piss off the powers that be. And while I’m sure we all appreciate DHH giving birth to an ecosystem that’s enabled bunches of us to make a great living writing nothing but Ruby after just 2-3 years, I’m not sure to what extent we OWE him more than we’ve given him. Moreover, I tend to doubt that he values our silent obedience as much as he reserves his inalienable human right to tell us when he thinks we’re being morons.
That being said, I have a concern. I don’t at all refute David’s position that the Rails logo (being the de facto “seal of approval” indicating his/Core’s approval of a thing’s “Rails-ness”) shouldn’t be claimed by commercial books and conferences willy-nilly.
But where does this leave individual developers/firms/companies who’ve used the logo to promote Rails services or Rails-based products? If the logo is a trademark (and it is), then shouldn’t everyone who’s used it in vain stop using it? I should think so, but it would be nice if there were some kind of “logo program” to replace it—some kind of official “We Use Rails” logo with open-but-very specific licensing provisions to allow people to indicate that they use Rails, or that their product/book/service is about Rails, without necessarily claiming or implying approval by DHH.
I mean, when Engine Yard uses the logo, does that mean they’re an “approved” Rails host? Are they more or less “approved” than Dreamhost? If we’re talking about the logo as a protected trademark, then let’s not keep the discussion limited to books and conferences.
August 13th, 2007 at 08:06 PM
I have an idea, someone find a designer to make a better logo. Geoffrey has already started this process with some design concepts. The fact is that currently David’s logo is the nicest one which is why everyone wants to use it. That can easily be changed, and soon it is possible that the copyrighted one will seem about as fresh as the PHP logo.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:23 AM
It seems Pete’s Swanky Framework has really taken off. Topfunky has a few logos which get to the heart of what a swanky framework should be.
http://nubyonrails.com/articles/quick-sketches-for-an-alternate-logo-that-can-be-used-by-all-developers-without-any-restrictions
Congrats Jeff
August 22nd, 2007 at 04:23 PM
@David Demaree: You make a very good suggestion. Something like a “powered by rails” icon is probably the best way to settle this. I imagine something like http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?pid=22484 is out of the question, because it incorporates the Rails™ logo.
Don’t forget to include the “(TM)” from now on when you mention the Framework :-D
@Jan: The Linux™ trademark is also in the hands of one person. I think that if you came up with something as revolutionary, you too would want to be the person who gives the official blessing on what is “good enough” to meet your standards. I see no reason why DHH should not do so. As long as David has an interest in the development of Rails™ and has its best interests at heart, I don’t doubt he will continue to exercise these rights.
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Andy: I would highly recommend this book over the one you’re reading. I switched from ASP programmer to web project manager about five years ago, so my programming skills are very crude and rusty, but I do understand web application development, and I think this book is perfect for people like you and me.
That said, it is pure folly to restrict yourself to one book. Pick up three books on Rails, and a fourth and fifth on a PHP framework. This has worked great for me. When I come accross a new concept, it’s as if I get to ask five different authors “and what do you think about subject x?”, just by flipping through the glossaries.
That perspective is vital. So keep your current book, pick up this one, and pick up two or three more.
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