Talks to Watch

Ruby on Rails demo

428K views · Nov 8, 2005 · 16:12 · 2 HN recommenders · 14 mentions · discussed 2013–2025

David Heinemeier Hansson builds a blog engine with Ruby on Rails in 15 minutes, the demo that launched Rails' momentum.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN treats it as the model for a compelling developer demo and a benchmark for how simple web development once felt.

“I think a good example to follow for your project is the original Rails announcement video by DHH”HN comment, 2018

What Hacker News said 14

RecommendsgrblovrflowerrrOct 2018

“I think a good example to follow for your project is the original Rails announcement video by DHH”

Model for a compelling demo: a full app in minutes

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I think a good example to follow for your project is the original Rails announcement video by DHH: this video Maybe you can do a similar app in way less time!

in “Show HN: Alan – a low-code application platform” · view on HN
RecommendsgirishsoOct 2023

“I was blown away that he created a blog application with comments in 15 minutes”

Blog with comments built in 15 minutes

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Ruby on Rails demo by DHH back in 2005/6. I was blown away that he created a blog application with comments in 15 minutes, I was working on Asp.NET back then and it would have taken me about a week to do that. this video

Cites itjulesFeb 2013

“Back then when I saw the first Rails video I remember finding it amazing. Now it's just boring.”

Original Rails demo once amazing, now seems boring as competition caught up

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Rails is now like Java EE because it is no longer better than the competition. It's not that Rails got worse. Perhaps in simplicity it did get worse a bit, but overall Rails now is much better than Rails then. The thing is that the competition got a lot better too. The baseline changed. I don't think the thing that will be to Rails as Rails was to Java EE exists yet though. The competition has merely caught up, perhaps a little ahead on some fronts and a little behind on others. But there is nothing that is clearly much much better. Things like Meteor and Opa are a step in the right direction, but they don't go far enough (yet). Does anybody remember this video: this video This is not the original Rails video, it's the second one I think, but they're fairly similar (couldn't find the original). Back then when I saw the first Rails video I remember finding it amazing. Now it's just boring.

Cites itchadkruseMar 2015

“Meteor is the 2015 version.”

Rails scaffolding demo as precedent for rapid prototyping

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Here's a reasonably recent list of production Meteor apps: link IMHO, one of the often overlooked use cases for Meteor is rapid-prototyping. If anyone remembers DHH's video 10 years ago demonstrating Rails' scaffolding [0], Meteor is the 2015 version. [0] this video

in “Meteor 1.1 Released – Now Supporting Microsoft Windows and MongoDB 3.0” · view on HN
Cites itmavelikaraJan 2017

“you have DHH creating a blog in 15 minutes using RoR.”

DHH building a blog in 15 minutes with Rails

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> There are a lot of vocal people who make it seem like you should be doing everything in Go or Angular or what have you It might be hard to believe now, but Rails also went through this stage of vocal supporters advocating for it over alternatives. If you go back and watch the introduction video [1], you have DHH creating a blog in 15 minutes using RoR. I remember being impressed by it and vocally pushing for it where I worked then. :) [1]: this video

in “DHH answers: What makes Rails a framework worth learning in 2017?” · view on HN
Cites itgrapplerFeb 2020

“dhh's intro to rails development using textmate”

DHH's Rails intro on TextMate as origin of the Mac developer tradition

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I know you're at least half joking, but for me it actually is the year of linux on the desktop. As a developer who does server-side stuff, a mac was an obvious easy choice for a long time -- a tradition that has been widespread going at least as far back as dhh's intro to rails development using textmate [1]. What does that open source crowd want now? They want to build OCI/docker containers and deploy them to kubernetes clusters. You can do that on mac, but these containers need to run on a linux kernel, so the setup winds up as containers on a VM on the host OS. If your dev machine is linux, you can remove the VM layer in between and the setup is simpler and more efficient. I think that might push a lot of developers from mac to linux. I just got a new dev machine recently and it's a linux laptop. [1] this video

in “Lenovo now shipping Ubuntu on high end workstations in the US” · view on HN
Cites iteduAug 2021

“The video gave me the same feeling I had when I watched the original rails demo video”

Original Rails demo as benchmark for an impressive demo

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Wow, congrats. It looks great, need to try it. The video gave me the same feeling I had when I watched the original rails demo video [1]. 1. this video

in “Show HN: Imba – I have spent 7 years creating a programming language for the web” · view on HN
Cites itBoumTACSep 2021

“In 15 years we came from 15 minutes to create a blog with this old tech to a few days of work.”

Blog in 15 minutes contrasted with modern frontend complexity

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When I started learning to code few years ago, tutorials were always, "how to create a blog ?" because it shows everything (authentication, crud, nested view, rights). Then javascript framework came out. It was so hard that they move to just a todolist tutorial because even the creator didn't know how to create a blog with their new cool tech. Some blogger were still able to understand how to use it and release todolist tutorial with authentication to demonstrate authentication, session management and rights. Then new cool javascript framework came out and now it was even harder to code, creators weren't able to develop a todolist because it was too hard so their tutorial was just a basic counter application. Now with nextjs we are even a step further. The developers don't know how to use it (is it even possible ?) so the tutorials show just how to "start" an application, load css and how to create a route. In just a few years we came from create a full application to not even know how to do a todolist. (Imagine form validation, it must be so hard !!!). Everybody seems happy and very productive. It must be myself. In 15 years we came from 15 minutes to create a blog with this old tech to a few days of work. That's a lot of progress we don't have to reload the page ! this video

in “I completely ignored the front end development scene for 6 months. It was fine” · view on HN
Cites itdmitriidDec 2021

“I've yet to see a single video like that from any of the new remixes”

Original Rails blog-in-15-minutes video from 2005

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The original "How to build a blog in 15 minutes with Rails" from 2005: this video I've yet to see a single video like that from any of the new remixes/redwoods/nexts/nuxts/<god there are so many of them> And one that doesn't require 270 KB of Javascript to display a static page like Remix's landing page.

Cites itsergiomatteiJan 2022

“the text in the forms is exactly what DHH used in 2005 when famously introducing Rails at a conference.”

Form text matches DHH's 2005 Rails introduction

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Love the little details: the text in the forms is exactly what DHH used in 2005 when famously introducing Rails at a conference. this video

Cites itavg_devMay 2023

“the initial momentum behind rails was sparked by a video about how to create a blog using rails without any setup in just a few minutes.”

Rails momentum started from a quick blog-building video

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i find this critique interesting, because i believe the initial momentum behind rails was sparked by a video about how to create a blog using rails without any setup in just a few minutes. this video

Cites itdmixMay 2023

DHH's blog-in-15-minutes video as model for AI scaffolding

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code2prompt.py has some interesting implications for "forking" github projects into the base of your own side project. Once this stuff matures it will be fascinating to see how the 2030 version of 2010 Rails scaffolding looks. What will the DHH "make a blog in 15min" video look like? (Edit: which apparently is 17yrs old now, aka 2006) this video

Cites itsphMay 2023

“Rails, it was this one 17 years ago”

The original Rails demo from 17 years ago

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The Live View demo or the Rails one? :-) Rails, it was this one 17 years ago: this video Live View, I'm not sure which is the first demo. There's "Build a real-time Twitter clone in 15 minutes with LiveView and Phoenix 1.5" ( link )

in “Dynamic Forms with LiveView Streams” · view on HN
JokeLioMay 2025

“The original DHH demo video[1], from 19 years ago, was a blog in 15 minutes.”

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20 minutes? Who’s got time for that? The original DHH demo video[1], from 19 years ago, was a blog in 15 minutes. AI is clearly rubbish! :P 1. this video

in “Ruby 3.5 Feature: Namespace on read” · view on HN