> I wasn't exactly thrilled by this announcement.  To be honest if feels
> like EngineYard is preparing for tough times by spinning off/cutting
> back all the open source projects they've been sponsoring (thanks by
> the way).  While getting merb into rails is a good thing, merging the
> two is going to be a long road of compromises filled with heartbreak
> for people who saw merb as "rails done right".  Rails, while wonderful
> and pioneering, was designed and written by php and java refugees who
> were learning the language as they went.  Rails source code seems
> convoluted and dare I say ugly when compared to merb and the
> organization of files just confusing.  Merb to me was rails with 20/20
> hindsight.

> Just looking at these two side by side in a browser gives me serious
> pause.

> http://github.com/wycats/merb/tree/master

> http://github.com/rails/rails/tree/master

> I'm sorry if I come off as a negative naysayer but it just feels like
> an independent film director whose work I respected finally got the
> recognition he/she deserved but as a result signed on to direct Rocky
> 8.  At the application level I think the disruption will be minimal
> for newer projects since we're talking about the same MVC philosophy
> and everything being ruby.

> I see big wins all around for rails but what's in it for the merb
> community?

> Bigger community?
> Merb already had the cream of the crop and we all saw how badly the
> signal to noise ratio degenerated as the influx of developers
> increased.  Merb was like the study hall of a big city public school
> where the smart kids hung out and bettered their minds rather than
> chase girls and popularity.

> Better documentation?
> Maybe but the lack of solid documentation for merb encouraged many to
> look under the hood and discover clean and concise source code.  Plus,
> if you argued that "specs are the docs" merb is in some ways much
> better documented than rails at the source level.

> Wider industry adoption?
> Yellowpages.com and a bunch of other established rails sites migrated
> to merb and it's only a time before any best kept secret stays kept.
> There was enough adoption of merb to sustain developer interest in
> keeping the framework moving forward.

> This all comes as a shock just as I thought things were settling down
> with merb 1.0.x.

> Sam

> PS   I use rails at work and merb at home.  I don't have anything
> personal against rails.  Just sad to lose a choice.  My bet is merb
> will eventually resurrect itself sometime before or after Rails 3.0.