Magazine rack. New issue of the Rubyist is out, as is Rails Magazine issue 1.

Ruby goes ABAP With the magic of JRuby you should be able to run Ruby on NetWeaver, but SAP is taking Ruby one step further and putting Ruby on the ABAP VM. For those who don’t know, the core of the monster is written in ABAP, SAP’s proprietary language. It’s ancient and moldy but if you can get past the smell, very productive. While this won’t make R/3 the next cool platform, it might give a kick for R/3 developers:

Rather than just running Ruby programs isolated on the ABAP server, Blue Ruby also provides two-way integration with the surrounding ABAP environment – ABAP programs can invoke Ruby code easily and Ruby programs are able to access existing ABAP functionality. However, this integration is strictly controlled by the Blue Ruby VM, turning Blue Ruby into a sandbox inside the ABAP server.

XML without shame Over the past few months Ruby’s XML support went from WTF to kick ass. REXML still ships by default but shouldn’t be your default option anymore. Check out the Ruby XML performance shootout (it is incomplete and possibly biased, but it will give you a sense of where we stand).

Ruby on JBoss? Yes we can. Lots of Java enterprise goodness there, though, not intended for people who pipe and cron.

April, just around the corner. The Cult of Taxes Manifesto.

Image, from Anatomy of a Triple Ristretto, a photo essay (via @mriou)