fun with ruby meta-programming

see http://pastie.caboo.se/86055

IronRuby alpha

John Lam has posted a nice article about the current work on IronRuby. My development team has already started using Ruby to write unit tests. We are currently using CRuby but plan to port to IronRuby once it is released. Our product is written on .Net so IronRuby will fit our project very well.

Diff tools

SourceGear just released an update to their free DiffMerge program. This product caught my eye because it has a 3-way merge. My current favorit Diff tool is Beyond Compare 2 from Scooter Software ($30). It has more features than DiffMerge, but doesn't include the 3-way merge which I sometimes need. The best merge tool I've ever used is Araxis Merge, but it costs $269 for the pro edition, I can't justify the extra cost vs the $30 Beyond Compare 2. Araxis Merge's price tag was worth it when I was working with an offshore team. I had to 3-way merge code from the US and India across many files and directories. It would have been too expensive in time if I didn't use Araxis Merge for that task.