Forem: Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva

GitHub Deletes Your Traffic Logs Every 14 Days. Here’s How to Stop That with Ruby

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 02:13:36 +0000

GitHub Deletes Your Traffic Logs Every 14 Days. Here’s How to Stop That with Ruby

March 30, 2026

Motivation: I didn’t want to lose the metrics for ruby-libgd and libgd-gis. So I built an app that stores all logs and generates custom charts using ruby-libgd.

What You’ll Get

A dashboard like this:

Historical metrics (not just 14 days)
Views and clones charts
Top referral sources
Daily automatic updates

👉 Read the full article.

GitHub Deletes Your Traffic Logs Every 14 Days. Here’s How to Stop That with Ruby – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

GitHub Deletes Your Traffic Logs Every 14 Days. Here’s How to Stop That with Ruby March 30, 2026 Motivation: I didn’t want to lose the metrics for ruby-libgd and libgd-gis. So I built a…

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ruby-libgd: The Modern Ruby Image Library You’ve Been Sleeping On

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:01:49 +0000

ruby-libgd: The Modern Ruby Image Library You’ve Been Sleeping On

March 30, 2026

Reading time: 8 minutes

Status: Benchmark-driven, production-ready

Executive Summary

After extensive benchmarking against RMagick, ChunkyPNG, and ruby-vips, ruby-libgd demonstrates overwhelming superiority in drawing operations (28x faster), pixel access (2.6x faster), sepia filtering (2.5x faster), and memory efficiency (3.7x less RAM).

But speed is only part of the story. ruby-libgd offers unique capabilities that no other Ruby image library provides: native GIF animation, advanced typography with kerning and line spacing, complex polygon rendering, and zero external process spawning.

The outdated documentation is wrong. The myths about GD are dead. Modern ruby-libgd is here, and it’s ready for production.

👉 Read the full article.

ruby-libgd: The Modern Ruby Image Library You’ve Been Sleeping On – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

ruby-libgd: The Modern Ruby Image Library You’ve Been Sleeping On March 30, 2026 Reading time: 8 minutes Status: Benchmark-driven, production-ready Executive Summary After extensive benchmark…

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Benchmark results are reproducible. Run ruby comprehensive_benchmark.rb yourself.

License: MIT

libgd-gis: Filling Ruby’s Graphics Gap and Building an Ecosystem

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 02:13:41 +0000

libgd-gis: Filling Ruby’s Graphics Gap and Building an Ecosystem

March 26, 2026

For years, generating map tiles, GIS visualizations, and fast raster graphics in Ruby has been a painful experience. ImageMagick derivatives were slow. External services added latency and complexity. The old ruby-gd binding languished unmaintained. Then ruby-libgd arrived – a modern, actively maintained binding to the GD library. But ruby-libgd alone addressed only part of the problem: it provided fast rendering, but lacked GIS-aware abstractions. Until recently, Ruby developers could render images efficiently, but geographic visualization required custom glue code.

Enter libgd-gis —a native rendering engine built specifically for Ruby’s geospatial and graphics needs. More importantly, it’s catalyzing a shift in how the Ruby community approaches visualization and spatial data.

👉 Read the full article.

libgd-gis: Filling Ruby’s Graphics Gap and Building an Ecosystem – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

libgd-gis: Filling Ruby’s Graphics Gap and Building an Ecosystem March 26, 2026 For years, generating map tiles, GIS visualizations, and fast raster graphics in Ruby has been a painful experi…

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FFI: How Ruby Talks to C

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 01:37:57 +0000

March 25, 2026

Published on RubyStackNews

Ruby is a high-level language. C is a low-level language. At some point, every serious Ruby application needs to cross that boundary.

Maybe you need a cryptography library. Maybe a signal processing engine. Maybe a hardware interface. Maybe raw performance on a hot path.

There are two ways to make Ruby speak C. This article covers both, explains when to use each, and shows you the code for real.

👉 Read the full article.

FFI: How Ruby Talks to C – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

March 25, 2026 Published on RubyStackNews Ruby is a high-level language. C is a low-level language. At some point, every serious Ruby application needs to cross that boundary. Maybe you need a cryp…

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German Silva ( @ruby_stack_news )

The Odin Project: Why It’s One of the Best Ways to Learn Web Development

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:02:46 +0000

March 24, 2026

If you’re looking for a structured, no-cost path into web development, The Odin Project consistently stands out as one of the most effective options available.

It’s not just another collection of tutorials. It’s a curriculum designed to teach you how to think and work like a developer.

What Makes It Different

Most learning platforms optimize for comfort:

step-by-step instructions
guided walkthroughs
minimal friction

The Odin Project takes a different approach.

It deliberately introduces friction.

You’re expected to:

read documentation
debug your own issues
search for solutions
connect concepts across multiple resources

This is much closer to real-world development than following polished tutorials.

👉 Read the full article.

The Odin Project: Why It’s One of the Best Ways to Learn Web Development – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

March 24, 2026 If you’re looking for a structured, no-cost path into web development, The Odin Project consistently stands out as one of the most effective options available. It’s not just another …

rubystacknews.com

Ruby Sees the World: Automatic Measurement from Photos

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 02:58:37 +0000

Ruby Sees the World: Automatic Measurement from Photos

March 23, 2026

Published on RubyStackNews

What if Ruby could look at a photo of a house and tell you the width of the door, the height of the windows, and the total wall length?

That is not science fiction. It is photogrammetry. And it is buildable in pure Ruby with ruby-libgd.

This article walks through the full pipeline: edge detection, Hough transform, scale calibration from a credit card reference, and measurement overlay on the original photo.

👉 Read the full article.

Ruby Sees the World: Automatic Measurement from Photos – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

Ruby Sees the World: Automatic Measurement from Photos March 23, 2026 Published on RubyStackNews What if Ruby could look at a photo of a house and tell you the width of the door, the height of the …

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German Silva ( @ruby_stack_news )

Can Ruby Read an X-Ray? Building a Medical Image Processor

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 03:03:39 +0000

Can Ruby Read an X-Ray? Building a Medical Image Processor

March 23, 2026

Published on RubyStackNews

Nobody expects Ruby to process medical images.

That is exactly why I tried it.

This article is about building a medical image analysis prototype in pure Ruby using ruby-libgd as the rendering and pixel manipulation engine. No Python. No OpenCV. No NumPy. Just Ruby, pixels, and math.

The target: chest X-rays from the NIH public dataset. The goal: edge detection, region segmentation, and histogram analysis.

Here is what happened.

👉 Read the full article.

Can Ruby Read an X-Ray? Building a Medical Image Processor – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

Can Ruby Read an X-Ray? Building a Medical Image Processor March 23, 2026 Published on RubyStackNews Nobody expects Ruby to process medical images. That is exactly why I tried it. This article is a…

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German Silva ( @ruby_stack_news )

🤖 Ruby events this week

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:42:27 +0000

Generated automatically by RubyEventsBot using ruby-libgd. Updated every 7 days.

Updated by: https://github.com/koxya | Twitter: @koxya

FastImage Overview

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 03:23:57 +0000

FastImage Overview

March 20, 2026

The Gem: Fetch image dimensions and type without downloading the entire file.

The Problem

Your app needs image dimensions from remote URLs (S3, CDN, etc.). Downloading 5MB just to learn the size is wasteful.

The Solution

FastImage reads only the file headers—typically 1-16KB—to determine size and type.

Key Features

Pure Ruby, no dependencies (no ImageMagick)
Supports 11 formats (GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, ICO, SVG, WebP, etc.)
Follows HTTP redirects
Handles timeouts and proxies
Reads EXIF orientation

👉 Read the full article.

FastImage Overview – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

FastImage Overview March 20, 2026 The Gem: Fetch image dimensions and type without downloading the entire file. The Problem Your app needs image dimensions from remote URLs (S3, CDN, etc.). Downloa…

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2D Histograms in Pure Ruby

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 02:53:38 +0000

2D Histograms in Pure Ruby

March 18, 2026

Published on RubyStackNews

One of the most useful tools in exploratory data analysis is the 2D histogram. Not the bar chart kind — the density map kind. Given a cloud of points, it answers a simple question: where do most of them live?

This article shows how to build one from scratch in pure Ruby using ruby-libgd, replicating a classic matplotlib example — and then taking it further with real CSV data.

What is a 2D histogram?

A regular histogram divides one variable into bins and counts how many values fall in each bin. A 2D histogram does the same thing for two variables simultaneously.

The result is a grid. Each cell covers a small region of the (x, y) plane, and its color represents how many data points landed there — light for few, dark for many.

It is particularly useful when you have thousands of points and a scatter plot would just look like a solid blob. The density map reveals structure that raw scatter hides: clusters, correlations, gaps, and outliers all become visible at a glance.

👉 Read the full article.

2D Histograms in Pure Ruby – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

2D Histograms in Pure Ruby March 18, 2026 Published on RubyStackNews One of the most useful tools in exploratory data analysis is the 2D histogram. Not the bar chart kind — the density map kind. Gi…

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Ruby on Rails — Complete Reference of Methods, Classes & Features Not in Ruby

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 02:15:10 +0000

Ruby on Rails — Complete Reference of Methods, Classes & Features Not in Ruby

March 17, 2026

Rails is much more than a framework on top of Ruby — it adds hundreds of methods, classes, and abstractions that plain Ruby simply doesn’t have. This is a complete reference of everything Rails brings to the table, excluding external gems like ActiveRecord, Devise, or Pundit. All items come from Action Pack, Action View, Action Mailer, Action Cable, Active Support, Active Job, or Action Dispatch.

👉 Read the full article.

Ruby on Rails — Complete Reference of Methods, Classes & Features Not in Ruby – Linking Ruby knowledge from the most remote places in the world.

Ruby on Rails — Complete Reference of Methods, Classes & Features Not in Ruby March 17, 2026 Rails is much more than a framework on top of Ruby — it adds hundreds of methods, classes, and abstr…

rubystacknews.com

Rails built-ins only — ActiveRecord, Devise, Pundit, and all other gems are excluded by design.

SVG Generation in Ruby: A Practical Guide

Germán Alberto Gimenez Silva — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 02:34:47 +0000

SVG Generation in Ruby: A Practical Guide

March 16, 2026

Recently, I created ruby-libgd and libgd-gis for raster graphics generation in cartography. But as I worked on these tools, I realized the landscape of web graphics has shifted significantly. Today’s web demands interactive, scalable, responsive visualizations. That’s where SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) comes in.

This article covers everything you need to know about generating SVG in Ruby: what it is, why it matters, the available tools, and how to use them with practical examples.

What is SVG?

SVG is an XML-based format for describing 2D graphics using geometric shapes and mathematical curves. Instead of storing pixels like raster formats (PNG, JPEG), SVG stores instructions: “draw a circle here,” “fill this polygon with blue,” “animate this element.”

When a browser renders SVG, it interprets these instructions at whatever resolution the device has. A map defined in SVG looks crisp on a phone, tablet, or massive monitor. It scales infinitely without quality loss.

👉 Read the full article.

https://rubystacknews.com/2026/03/16/svg-generation-in-ruby-a-practical-guide/