What happens when you put Rails in a browser? Vladimir Dementyev (Vova) is pushing WebAssembly to its limits by creating an interactive Rails playground that runs entirely client-side. This groundbreaking project aims to eliminate the frustrating installation barriers that often discourage newcomers from trying Ruby on Rails.

"I asked myself the question - can I run Rails on WASM? And that's when you feel yourself like a pilgrim software engineer, experiencing something for the first time that no one ever experienced," Vova shares. The project isn't just a technical curiosity but serves a vital educational purpose - allowing anyone to learn Rails through the official tutorial without wrestling with Ruby version managers or environment setup.

As principal engineer at Evil Martians, Vova balances multiple innovative projects simultaneously. Beyond Rails on WASM, he's organizing the first San Francisco Ruby Conference (coming November 2024), building a custom open-source CFP application, expanding AnyCable to support Laravel, and updating his technical book "Ruby on Rails Applications." His creative problem-solving approach extends to production environments too, where techniques developed for experimental projects help solve real client challenges like making libvips fork-safe for high-performance web servers.

Vova's philosophy on productivity is refreshingly practical: work when inspiration strikes rather than forcing creativity during arbitrary hours. "If I have no desire to sit at my desk and stare at the laptop, I'm not going to do that. I wait for the moment to come, and then I sit and work, and it's really efficient."

Ready to see what Ruby and Rails can do in previously impossible environments? Follow Vova's work, attend his RailsConf talk, or join the growing San Francisco Ruby community to witness how Ruby's flexibility continues to break new ground in unexpected ways.

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The last RailsConf ever is coming to Philadelphia this summer, and co-chair Chris Oliver joins us to pull back the curtain on what's sure to be a historic gathering for the Rails community.

Chris reveals how the programming committee curated an exceptional lineup from hundreds of submissions, balancing nostalgic looks at Rails' 18-year journey with cutting-edge technical content. You'll hear why Philadelphia's walkable layout, incredible food scene (Reading Terminal Market gets particular praise), and Fourth of July celebrations make it the perfect host city for this final RailsConf hurrah.

Beyond the sessions themselves, Chris and I explore what truly makes tech conferences special—those irreplaceable in-person connections. Whether you're a seasoned Rails veteran or relatively new to the framework, the hallway conversations, shared meals, and spontaneous problem-solving sessions offer exponentially more value than what appears on the official schedule. We both share how these gatherings have accelerated our careers and sparked lasting professional relationships.

The conversation takes an enlightening turn as Chris opens up about his current technical challenges, including the complexities of testing Hotwire applications and designing flexible API wrappers for payment processing systems. His insights on balancing specificity with adaptability when building reusable libraries offer valuable perspective for anyone writing code meant to be shared.

This episode serves both as an enthusiastic invitation to join the Ruby community in Philadelphia and a thoughtful exploration of why in-person events remain vital in our increasingly remote world. Supporting RailsConf isn't just about personal growth—it's about strengthening the Ruby ecosystem that has supported so many developers throughout their careers.

Ready to book your ticket for this historic event? Don't miss our podcast panel at RailsConf—come experience our conversations live and in person!

Links:

• RailsConf
• GoRails
• Learn Hotwire
• excid3 on BlueSky

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Swimming against the current sometimes leads to unexpected treasures. In this fascinating conversation, Adam Fortuna reveals how migrating Hardcover—a social network for readers with 30,000 users—from Next.js back to Ruby on Rails delivered surprising performance improvements and development simplicity.

The journey begins with Adam explaining how Hardcover originated as a response to Goodreads shutting down their API. As a longtime Rails developer who initially chose Next.js for its server-side rendering capabilities, Adam found himself drawn back to Rails once modern tools made it viable to combine Rails' backend strengths with React's frontend interactivity. The migration wasn't a complete rewrite—they preserved their React components while replacing GraphQL with ActiveRecord—and unexpectedly saw significant improvements in page load speeds and SEO rankings.

At the heart of this technical evolution is Inertia.js, which Adam describes as "the missing piece for Rails for a long time." This elegant solution allows direct connections between Rails controllers and React components without duplicating routes, creating a seamless developer experience. We dive into the challenges they faced, particularly with generating Open Graph images and handling API abuse, and how they solved these problems with pragmatic hybrid approaches.

The conversation takes an exciting turn as Adam discusses their work on book recommendation engines, combining collaborative filtering with content analysis to help readers discover their next favorite book. As someone currently enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series (described as "RPG mixed with Hitchhiker's Guide"), Adam's passion for both books and elegant technical solutions shines throughout.

Listen in as we explore how going against conventional wisdom sometimes leads to better outcomes, and discover why Hardcover is now being open-sourced to invite community collaboration. Whether you're interested in Rails, JavaScript frameworks, or book recommendations, this episode offers valuable insights into making technical decisions based on real-world results rather than following trends.

Links

• https://hardcover.app/blog/part-1-how-we-fell-out-of-love-with-next-js-and-back-in-love-with-ruby-on-rails-inertia-js
• https://adamfortuna.com/
• https://bsky.app/profile/adamfortuna.com

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