--- title: "This week's Ruby news, issue 286" publication: "Ruby Weekly" issue: 286 published_at: "2016-02-25" canonical_url: "https://rubyweekly.com/issues/286" --- This week's Ruby news, issue 286 This week's Ruby and Rails news[Read this e-mail on the Web](http://rubyweekly.com/issues/286) Ruby WeeklyIssue 286 — February 25, 2016 Ruby News[Support Plans for Ruby 2.0.0 and Ruby 2.1](https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2016/02/24/support-plan-of-ruby-2-0-0-and-2-1/)Core team support for Ruby 2.0.0 ended this week with no bug and security fixes forthcoming. Ruby 2.1’s maintenance phase will end with 2.1.9 in March. Everyone is recommended to upgrade to 2.2 or 2.3 soon. Richard Schneeman[Speeding up Sprockets](https://engineering.heroku.com/blogs/2016-02-18-speeding-up-sprockets/)A look at why the Rails asset pipeline can seem so slow and how Heroku was able to get a 12x performance improvement on some apps with Sprockets version 3.3+. RailsConf[RailsConf 2016 - May 4-6, Kansas City](http://railsconf.com/)The largest gathering of Rails developers in the world heads to Kansas City. The [program](http://railsconf.com/program) is now live. AppSignalSponsored[Ruby Magic. A new email series that lets you in on Ruby's secrets.](https://appsignal.com/ruby-magic/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ruby_magic&utm_campaign=286)Magicians never share their tricks. But we do. Subscribe to our Ruby Magic email series and learn the tricks that make your Ruby even better. Poof! [![AppSignal\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/2a762f37.png)](https://appsignal.com/ruby-magic/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ruby_magic&utm_campaign=286) Alexander Dymo[Is 2.3 Faster? The Performance of Immutable String Literals](http://ruby-performance-book.com/blog/2016/02/is-ruby-2-3-faster-frozen-string-literals-performance.html)Alex continues his series of Ruby 2.3 performance posts with a look at the new, experimental frozen string literals feature (set to be enabled by default in Ruby 3.0). Starr Horne[Building A Simple Websockets Server From Scratch in Ruby](http://blog.honeybadger.io/building-a-simple-websockets-server-from-scratch-in-ruby/)Rails 5’s ActionCable brings WebSockets to the fore for Rails developers, but what _are_ WebSockets and how do they work? How better to learn than by creating a WebSockets server from scratch. Jacob Rothstein[A Brief Tour of Nokogiri Decorators](https://blog.jbr.me/a-brief-tour-of-nokogiri-decorators/)An in-depth look at how Nokogiri’s architecture facilitates [Loofah](https://github.com/flavorjones/loofah)’s integration with it, with a view to switching Loofah’s dependency from Nokogiri to Oga. Andrei Horak[WhoUsesThisGem: Which Top Projects Use Which Gems](http://whousesthisgem.com/)The most popular Ruby repositories on GitHub have been scanned and you can see which ones use which gems with this online tool. Elle Meredith[To Gem, or Not to Gem](https://robots.thoughtbot.com/to-gem-or-not-to-gem)Some guidelines as to whether to use a gem in your project or not. Jobs - [Senior Backend Engineer at Earbits Radio (Los Angeles, CA)](https://angel.co/earbits-yc-w11/jobs/79012-senior-backend-engineer?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email)Earbits Radio empowers high quality, pre-screened, independent bands and labels by letting them bid for airtime and monetize the audience. Join a team of passionate people who are using technology to change the lives of artists everywhere. Earbits - [Ruby Web Developer @ etventure](https://4scotty.com/et-venture-ruby-developer/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=rubyweekly&utm_content=et-venture-ruby-developer&utm_campaign=ruby_weekly_KW8)We bring our own ideas to life by building startups. If you never start coding before you haven’t had your first cup of coffee and you like to work in an international environment you should meet our tech team. ETVENTURE - [Get 10 offers from top tech companies in one week.](http://www.indeed.com/prime?sid=xp_cooperpress&kw=rubyweekly)Indeed Prime is an elite new program from Indeed.com that presents in-demand tech talent like you to top employers. Indeed Prime opens the door to exciting career opportunities with one simple application. [Join today.](http://www.indeed.com/prime?sid=xp_cooperpress=ruby) Indeed.com In brief - [Nordic Ruby Back for 2016; Early Bird Tickets Now on Sale](http://www.nordicruby.org/blog/2016/02/22/welcome-to-true-north.html?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) news Nordic Ruby 2016 - [Rails 5 Makes belongs_to Associations 'Required' by Default](http://blog.bigbinary.com/2016/02/15/rails-5-makes-belong-to-association-required-by-default.html?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) news tutorial But you can opt out if you need to. Abhishek Jain - [Private Classes in Ruby](https://blog.arkency.com/2016/02/private-classes-in-ruby/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial This never occurred to me before - interesting idea. Robert Pankowecki - [How to Prepare Yourself for Frozen String Literals and Not Lose Performance](http://ruby-performance-book.com/blog/2016/02/is-ruby-2-3-faster-how-to-prepare-yourself-for-frozen-string-literals-and-not-lose-performance.html?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial Alexander Dymo - [Put Your Finger on Triggers in Rails with HairTrigger](http://www.sitepoint.com/put-your-finger-on-triggers-in-rails-with-hairtrigger/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial Create and manage database triggers in Rails in a concise and database agnostic way. SitePoint - [Using Docker for an Existing Rails Application](http://chrisstump.online/2016/02/20/docker-existing-rails-application/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial Chris Stump - [Struggling Towards Reliable Capybara JavaScript Testing](https://bibwild.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/struggling-towards-reliable-capybara-javascript-testing/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial Jonathan Rochkind - [How to Write Your Own RSpec Retry Mechanism](http://vaneyckt.io/posts/how_to_write_your_own_rspec_retry_mechanism/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial Tom Van Eyck - [How to Use a React DateTimePicker with Rails Forms](http://blog.mojotech.com/how-to-use-a-react-datetimepicker-with-rails-forms/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial Cathy Zoller - [Using Markdown with the 'kramdown' Library and Tools](http://talks.gettalong.org/2016-02-vienna-html/#slide-0?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tutorial Thomas Leitner - [Do You Know a Neglected Rails App?](https://www.reinteractive.net/service/code-care?sid=36) Does your Rails app not get the attention it deserves? Neglected Rails apps become harder to maintain and upgrade. Sign up to CodeCare and get fixed price ongoing upgrades and improvements. ReinteractiveSponsored - [Side Effects of Using .first_or_create! at Scale in Rails](http://aserafin.pl/2016/02/19/side-effects-of-using-first-or-create-at-scale/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) opinion Adrian Serafin - [Inject As A Fundamental Building Block](http://renderedtext.com/blog/2016/02/18/inject-is-a-fundamental-building-block/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) opinion Igor Šarčević - [How Elixir’s Ecto differs from Ruby’s ActiveRecord](https://www.amberbit.com/blog/2016/2/24/how-elixirs-ecto-differs-from-rubys-activerecord/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) opinion _(We should probably be rolling an Elixir Weekly at this point..)_ AmberBit - [On the 'if'](http://purinkle.co.uk/post/139843782736/on-the-if?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) opinion “ifs in Ruby annoy me. I’m going to explain how and why I came to this conclusion” purinkle - [Bond - A Spy-Based Testing and Mocking Library](http://dreaming-neptune.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/bond-spy-based-testing-and-mocking.html?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) tools Available for Python, Ruby, and Java. [Tutorial here.](http://necula01.github.io/bond/tutorial.html) Erik Krogen - [Opal::Actioncable: Bring ActionCable Support to Opal](https://github.com/MichaelSp/opal-actioncable?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) code - [Tiny Path: A Tiny, Monte Carlo Path Tracer in Ruby](https://github.com/JVillella/tiny-path?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) code Written as a learning aid for people interested in raytracing. Julian Villella - [DynamoDB::Migration: A Simple DynamoDB Migration Tool](https://github.com/henrylawson/dynamodb-migration?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) code Henry Lawson - [ActiveEnumerable: ActiveRecord-Like Query Methods for Enumerables](https://github.com/zeisler/active_enumerable?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) code Dustin Zeisler - [VeryAnts: Probabilistic Integer Arithmetic](https://github.com/saghm/very-ants?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) code Saghm Rossi - [googledoc_markdown: A Gem for Converting Google Doc HTML to Markdown](https://github.com/ivarvong/googledoc_markdown?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) code Ivar Vong - [Jump start your next Ruby on Rails project](https://www.happybearsoftware.com/?utm_source=rubyweekly&utm_medium=email) Happy Bear Software is a small technical consultancy that builds web applications for startups, established businesses and non-profits. 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