Itch Scratching is the basis of all Open Source development. But how do you start? What is the process to get from having done NOTHING to releasing a massive and complete library? This talk goes through the steps that I went through to develop the Ruby Mail Gem

1. Itch Scratching
the ActionMailer
API
A brief foray into the mind of a masochist!

2. whoami?

3. whoami?
Working in Rails & Ruby for 4+ Years

4. whoami?
Working in Rails & Ruby for 4+ Years
Maintainer of TMail & Author of Mail

5. whoami?
Working in Rails & Ruby for 4+ Years
Maintainer of TMail & Author of Mail
DBA and Internet Plumber

6. whoami?
Working in Rails & Ruby for 4+ Years
Maintainer of TMail & Author of Mail
DBA and Internet Plumber
Rails Contributor

7. whoami?
Working in Rails & Ruby for 4+ Years
Maintainer of TMail & Author of Mail
DBA and Internet Plumber
Rails Contributor
Entrepreneur

8. y?

9. y?
Mail Application

10. y?
Mail Application
Challenge

11. y?
Mail Application
Challenge
TMail

12. OMGLOLSPAM

13. OMGLOLSPAM
“TMail was a great SPAM checker...
if it crashed while parsing an email
then you knew it was SPAM.”
- Koz

14. Why not just fix TMail?

15. Why not just fix TMail?
Released 10 patch and minor versions

16. Why not just fix TMail?
Released 10 patch and minor versions
I wrote over 600 lines of Docs

17. Why not just fix TMail?
Released 10 patch and minor versions
I wrote over 600 lines of Docs
Built on a Strategy Pattern

18. Why not just fix TMail?
Released 10 patch and minor versions
I wrote over 600 lines of Docs
Built on a Strategy Pattern
Parser Written in C

19. Why not just fix TMail?
Released 10 patch and minor versions
I wrote over 600 lines of Docs
Built on a Strategy Pattern
Parser Written in C
HARD TO FOLLOW

20. Why not just fix TMail?

21. Why not just fix TMail?
TMail was not very modular and hard to maintain

22. Why not just fix TMail?
TMail was not very modular and hard to maintain
Wanted to write a major library

23. Why not just fix TMail?
TMail was not very modular and hard to maintain
Wanted to write a major library
How hard could email be?

24. Why not just fix TMail?
TMail was not very modular and hard to maintain
Wanted to write a major library
How hard could email be?
I wanted a nice DSL

25. Why not just fix TMail?
TMail was not very modular and hard to maintain
Wanted to write a major library
How hard could email be?
I wanted a nice DSL
Not as fun

26. Mail’s DSL is Simple

27. Mail’s DSL is Simple

28. Mail’s DSL is Simple

29. Mail’s DSL is Simple

30. Mail’s DSL is Simple

31. Mail’s DSL is Simple

32. Mail’s DSL is Simple

33. Mail’s DSL is Simple

34. How Hard Could It Be?

35. How Hard Could It Be?
Read RFCs

36. How Hard Could It Be?
Read RFCs
Read more RFCs

37. How Hard Could It Be?
Read RFCs
Read more RFCs
Keep reading RFCs...

38. How Hard Could It Be?
Read RFCs
Read more RFCs
Keep reading RFCs...
“email is defined in RFCs, so should be easy...”

39. RFCs

40. RFCs

43. RSpec FTW!

44. RSpec FTW!
I use RSpec because I am lazy

45. RSpec FTW!
I use RSpec because I am lazy
EVERYTHING in Mail is BDD

46. RSpec FTW!
I use RSpec because I am lazy
EVERYTHING in Mail is BDD
Regressions Caught

47. RSpec FTW!
I use RSpec because I am lazy
EVERYTHING in Mail is BDD
Regressions Caught
Seriously

48. Spec’ing for Libraries

49. Spec’ing for Libraries
Start Simple

50. Spec’ing for Libraries
Start Simple
Comments in Spec Files are OK

51. Spec’ing for Libraries
Start Simple
Comments in Spec Files are OK
Use Custom Matchers

52. Spec’ing for Libraries
Start Simple
Comments in Spec Files are OK
Use Custom Matchers
Break Down Your Spec Files

53. Spec’ing for Libraries
Start Simple
Comments in Spec Files are OK
Use Custom Matchers
Break Down Your Spec Files
Spec in Multiple Rubies

54. Start Somewhere

55. Start Somewhere

56. Start Somewhere

57. Start Somewhere

58. Comments are OK

59. Comments are OK

60. Use Custom Matchers
when appropriate

61. Use Custom Matchers
when appropriate

62. Use Custom Matchers
when appropriate

63. Use Custom Matchers
when appropriate

64. Custom Matchers

65. Custom Matchers

66. Break Down Spec Files

67. Break Down Spec Files

68. Break Down Spec Files
26 Sub Directories

69. Break Down Spec Files
26 Sub Directories
79 Ruby Spec Files

70. Break Down Spec Files
26 Sub Directories
79 Ruby Spec Files
73 Edge Case Emails

71. Break Down Spec Files
26 Sub Directories
79 Ruby Spec Files
73 Edge Case Emails
Many Many Lines of Specs

72. Break Down Spec Files
26 Sub Directories
79 Ruby Spec Files
73 Edge Case Emails
Many Many Lines of Specs
1161 examples

73. Break Down Spec Files
26 Sub Directories
79 Ruby Spec Files
73 Edge Case Emails
Many Many Lines of Specs
1161 examples
No Failures :)

74. Spec in Multiple Rubies

75. Spec in Multiple Rubies
Have to be a good Ruby Citizen

76. Spec in Multiple Rubies
Have to be a good Ruby Citizen
JRuby

77. Spec in Multiple Rubies
Have to be a good Ruby Citizen
JRuby
REE

78. Spec in Multiple Rubies
Have to be a good Ruby Citizen
JRuby
REE
Rubinius
(almost)

79. Spec in Multiple Rubies
Have to be a good Ruby Citizen
JRuby
REE
Rubinius
(almost)
MRI - 1.8.6, 1.8.7, 1.9.1, 1.9.2

80. But What About Real Life?

81. But What About Real Life?
Mail parses the Enron and Trec Data Sets

82. But What About Real Life?
Mail parses the Enron and Trec Data Sets
mikel@baci ~/Code
$ du -hs corpus/
2.4G of Emails

83. But What About Real Life?
Mail parses the Enron and Trec Data Sets
mikel@baci ~/Code
$ du -hs corpus/
2.4G of Emails
mikel@baci ~/Code
$ find corpus -name "*" -print | wc -l
328,248 Emails

84. show me the model!

85. show me the model!
Mail

86. show me the model!
Mail Message

87. show me the model!
Mail Message Header

88. show me the model!
Mail Message Header
Body

89. show me the model!

90. show me the model!
Message Body

91. show me the model!
Message Body
Header

92. show me the model!
Message Body
Header FieldList

93. show me the model!
Message Body
Header FieldList Fields

94. show me the model!
Message Body
Header FieldList Fields
StructuredField
Content-Type
Content-Transfer-Encoding
To, From, Cc, Bcc, Reply-To

95. show me the model!
Message Body
Header FieldList Fields
StructuredField UnstructuredField
Content-Type Subject
Content-Transfer-Encoding X-Headers et al
To, From, Cc, Bcc, Reply-To Any other unparsable field

96. show me the model!

97. show me the model!
Message Header

98. show me the model!
Message Header
Body

99. show me the model!
Message Header
Preamble
Body

100. show me the model!
Message Header
Preamble
One or
Body
Many Parts

101. show me the model!
Message Header
Preamble
One or
Body
Many Parts
Epilogue

102. show me the model!
Message Header
Preamble
One or
Body Message
Many Parts
Ohhh... O.O.
Recursive
Epilogue
Type Stuff

103. show me the model!

104. show me the model!
And Thats It!

105. show me the model!
And Thats It!
Simple Hey?

106. show me the model!
Header Errors Legacy Emails
Parsers rfc822 Delivery Agents
And Thats It! SMTP
Body Decoding
SPAM PGP Signing POP3 File Types
Mbox Simple Hey? Network
IMAP Language Support
Sendmail Delivery Bad Emails Encoding
Edge Cases
Pattern Matching
OMGMIME! Decoding Attachments
Interceptors
File IO Domain Key Emails
Observers Status Reports
Inline Attachments

107. OK, ActionMailer?

108. OK, ActionMailer?
Much Easier to Use

109. OK, ActionMailer?
Much Easier to Use
Nicer Defaults & Config

110. OK, ActionMailer?
Much Easier to Use
Nicer Defaults & Config
ActionMailer Methods Return Mail Object

111. OK, ActionMailer?
Much Easier to Use
Nicer Defaults & Config
ActionMailer Methods Return Mail Object
Deprecated (not Decapitated) API

112. OK, ActionMailer?
Much Easier to Use
Nicer Defaults & Config
ActionMailer Methods Return Mail Object
Deprecated (not Decapitated) API
Tutorials

113. Much Easier to Use

114. Much Easier to Use
New Mailer Directory

115. Much Easier to Use
New Mailer Directory
Can Call “mail” method and pass a hash

116. Nicer Defaults

117. Nicer Defaults

118. Nicer Config

119. Nicer Config

120. AM Returns Mail

121. AM Returns Mail

122. AM Returns Mail

123. Mail Call Back Hooks

124. Mail Call Back Hooks

125. Mail Call Back Hooks

126. Mail Call Back Hooks

127. Mail Call Back Hooks

128. Mail Call Back Hooks

129. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone

130. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone
Did not nuke the old API

131. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone
Did not nuke the old API
New API triggers ONLY if you call “mail”

132. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone
Did not nuke the old API
New API triggers ONLY if you call “mail”
Old API in place if no “mail” call

133. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone
Did not nuke the old API
New API triggers ONLY if you call “mail”
Old API in place if no “mail” call
Will be Removed in 3.1

134. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone

135. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone

136. Deprecated API
Decapitation Free Zone

137. HELP!!!

138. HELP!!!
Replace treetop with Ragel or RACC

139. HELP!!!
Replace treetop with Ragel or RACC
Implement full POP3 and IMAP Support

140. HELP!!!
Replace treetop with Ragel or RACC
Implement full POP3 and IMAP Support
Domain Key Implementation

141. HELP!!!
Replace treetop with Ragel or RACC
Implement full POP3 and IMAP Support
Domain Key Implementation
PGP Signing

142. HELP!!!
Replace treetop with Ragel or RACC
Implement full POP3 and IMAP Support
Domain Key Implementation
PGP Signing
More Documentation

143. Tutorials

144. Tutorials
lindsaar.net

145. Tutorials
lindsaar.net
www.RailsDispatch.com

146. Tutorials
lindsaar.net
www.RailsDispatch.com
www.RailsCasts.com

147. KTHXBAI
Questions?
@raasdnil
mikel@rubyx.com
lindsaar.net