Drawing in Internet-enabled ruby-processing as a tool for teaching Ruby...

[Jay McGavren]

For those interested in teaching the Ruby language itself, you may
find this project interesting:

https://github.com/jaymcgavren/amqp-processing

It lets you run a local ruby-processing (a Ruby interface to the Java-
based Processing graphics language) app, connected to apps on others'
machines via AMQP (the messaging protocol used by RabbitMQ and
others). Methods you call in your local app are echoed to all other
users' machines, and vice versa, so everyone can collaborate and draw
together. Its primary intent is for remote use, but it should work
just as well in a classroom setting (or even a mixture of the two).
Initial tests have shown it to be fast and robust.

Here's a video of a similar setup (but based on DRb) in action at a
Ruby conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NWNvqKEGIY

Although it's built on proven libraries, the project itself is still
very young, and I'm interested in helping potential users get set up
so we can work the kinks out. If you'd like to arrange a test
session, please reply here!

--
Jay McGavren
http://jay.mcgavren.com

[bowser_senior]

Wow, nice work Jay! It's sure to grab people's attention and show them
the awesomeness of ruby!

-Mani