DADanielKehoe·Jul 3, 2014
Here's my feedback, as the developer of the Rails Composer tool [https://github.com/RailsApps/rails-composer].
I got started with "automated Rails development" (as you call it) using Michael Bleigh's RailsWizard. He built it at RailsRumble 2010 as a website that generates Rails apps. I forked it as Rails Composer when the project was abandoned, and developed it further, purely as a command-line tool. It's been the most popular project I've worked on in the Rails community, and also more work than I ever expected.
I've had a huge community supporting Rails Composer as an open source project so I get a reliable stream of issue reports and pull requests. And I've built a business model to fund the project, by asking supporters to pay $19/mo, and offering my in-depth Rails tutorials as a reward for subscribers. That's the RailsApps project [h
Read the rest
ttp://railsapps.github.io/].
Rails Composer is popular because developers really like a tool to build starter apps, and it's a lot of work because changes to Rails and gems constantly introduce entropy. I think you'll face a similar challenge with Prelang, maintaining the product as gems change. Developers want an automated Rails development tool because a good starter app will give them a reference implementation, code that is properly configured and guaranteed to work with the latest versions of all the popular gems. You'll have to keep checking and tweaking as gems and Rails versions change. That job will be easier if you limit the starter app to use only the most popular stack and a small set of popular gems, as you've done so far. You'll also need to monetize the project to be able to maintain it (I doubt it can succeed as a spare-time project). As a gauge of time required, I work fulltime on RailsApps, splitting my time between developing Rails Composer and writing the tutorials for the project's supporters.
Erik, I hope you do well with Prelang. You've created a beautiful interface, the project is ambitious, and judging by Rails Composer, developers will want it.