Today, I was pointed to http://pow.cx by a coworker of mine. Getting home, I remembered and thought I'd give it a try. Pow works like a webserver for Ruby, but its both more and less in its thoughtful elegance. Thanks to @37Signals for this awesome open-source tool.

I watched the 2 minute video on the website to instruct me on the 1 minute installation. 1 minute indeed.

From a Mac Terminal window, type "curl get.pow.cx | sh". (type your root password) it even reminds you to check the source if you want Change directories to .pow. Type "cd ~/.pow". Create a symlink. Type "ln -s ~/path/to/rails/project" wherever your project(s) may be and, your Rails app will be available at http://project.dev, in what seems a somewhat magical fashion. Pow uses the directory of the project and ".dev" as an extension (yay convention over configuration!). That's it. No more rails server -p3000, 3001, etc.

Pow.cx lowers the barrier in Ruby development even more, by fiercely removing the low-value (low-enjoyment) work in a programmer's lifecycle.

http://sandbox.dev POW!

http://afomi.dev POW!