Single file Rails applications (for fun and bug reporting) | Christoph Lupprich

As you might know from previous posts, I keep a Rails playground project around. That’s a small application with a bunch of models, controllers and accompanying tests. It allows me to quickly try out a new gem that was mentioned in a blog post, see the effects of a configuration flag, or quickly prototype other ideas.Sometimes however, even that very simple Rails application is too big. For example, when I want to share the application with friends or the internet. A default Rails application consists of a bunch of files that span multiple directories. That’s no longer suitable for a GitHub Gist or a simple email. Also, telling people to look at a bunch of files, but ignoring others, isn’t too easy. What’s important, what can be ignored?.