Concord Consortium Blog

Ruby is a powerful and dynamic open-source object-oriented language we have been using extensively at CC in the last few years for the web applications that manage and coordinate authoring and deployment of activities based on the SAIL/OTrunk framework .

The standard Ruby VM is written in C and we've been using version 1.8.6, the latest stable release on our servers. A beta version of the next major release, version 1.9.1 has recently been released.

Ruby 1.9 looks to be about twice as fast as Ruby 1.8.6.

I'm even more impressed by the recent performance increases in JRuby however. This is a version of Ruby that runs in Java. Programs written in JRuby can easily access code written in Java which makes integration with the rest of our Java codebase much easier.

A year ago programs written in JRuby were often slower than ones written in version 1.8.6 of C Ruby. Now for some benchmarks JRuby is twice as fast as Ruby 1.9.

More details about some of these measurements are here: 

Ruby 1.8.6, 1.9, and JRuby running on Java 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 compared

The next version of Java being developed is v1.7.0 and the OpenJDK version is being released as open source under the GPL license.

 I've written a wiki page describing how to build and install this new version of Java on Mac OS 10.5.6.

Build OpenJDK Java 1.7.0 on Mac OS X 10.5

The TEEMSS2 project has released the first prototype release of a web application which allows anyone to create and deploy simple probeware activities that work with six different probeware vendor-interface combinations. Try it the activity microportal here:

TEEMSS2 Unit 0 Activities

Here's a link to a very simple temperature probe activity:

Simplest possible temperature activity

If you want to change the probeware vendor-interface go to this page and select your probeware vendor-interface in the pull-down menu on the right and then click Save. Then Run any of the activities on the microportal again.

Select probeware vendor-interface

If you want to change the activity instead open this page on the microportal, make your changes, click Save and then click Run.

Edit: Simplest possible temperature activity

The web application supports authoring of simple probeware applications. After authoring the activity is made available as a Java webstart application built on the SensorPortfolio technology developed in the TEEMSS2 project.

Here is a list of the vendors-interface combinations that you can select.

Fourier Ecolog

The Fourier EcoLog has several built-in sensors, can read external Fourier sensors, and communicates via usb.

Data Harvest Easysense Q

The Data Harvest EasySense Q works with all the Data Harvest sensors and communicates via usb.

Pasco Science Workshop 500

The Pasco Science Workshop 500 has four input ports for connecting older Pasco sensors and communicates to your computer via a serial port.

Pasco Airlink SI

The Pasco AirLink Si uses PASPORT sensors and communicates to your computer via Bluetooth wireless networking.

Texas Instruments CBL2

The Texas Instruments CBL2 works with TI sensors and communicates via usb.

Vernier Go!IO

Vernier's usb Go!Link interface works with many Vernier sensors. The Go! Temp and Go!Motion sensors have a Go!Link interfaces integrated into the sensor. Simulated Data Use the Simulated Data interface when you have no probeware to attach to your computer but you still want to test your activity.