GrailsCrowd: Member: Nate

I‘m a previous Ruby on Rails Kool-Aid drinker who‘s sold out to the Groovy & Grails project in order to get a good job and stay in St. Louis.

I always wanted to develop in Java since 1996, and finally got the chance in 2003. I was very disappointed with how much code and hassle it took to program simple Web pages using Java-related technologies. The huge footprint of the Java VM and servlet containers brought my computer to a crawl and developing applications was miserable.

I went back to Perl for 2 years, then jumped at a chance to get back into Java and JavaServer Faces. I quickly remembered what I hated about designing Web Pages using Java again. XML configuration files and DAO Objects that looked exactly like other objects abounded, along with my frustration and amazement at how everyone seemed to love this stuff.

Then, I discovered Ruby on Rails in 2005 and decided that this is where it‘s at in Web Development. I enjoy different technologies and believe that there‘s no “One size fits all” programming environment, so I was very happy when I landed my current position developing Web apps using Groovy and Grails.

I look forward to getting good enough to contribute back to the Groovy and Grails community, even if it‘s in the form of documentation.