To make things easier for you, I’ve also embeded the videos after the jump. Francis’s video is first with mine second. Sorry for the occasional fuzzy video quality, I’m still not good at filming presentations.

Pound is dead simple to setup and configure. Unfortunately, the darwin port for pound is old and does not work. So this guide will help you build pound on your own. Besides, everyone feels cooler after compiling that hot fire. Click on for the steps.

1. Open terminal.
2. Install zlib

mkdir ~/temp
curl -O http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
tar xzvf zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz
cd zlib-1.2.3
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --shared
make
sudo make install

3. Install openssl

curl -O http://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-0.9.8b.tar.gz
tar xzvf openssl-0.9.8b.tar.gz
cd openssl-0.9.8b
./config -L/usr/local/lib --openssldir=/usr/local/etc/openssl \\
    zlib no-asm no-krb5 shared
make
sudo make install

4. Install Pound 2.0 or greater

curl -O http://www.apsis.ch/pound/Pound-2.0.tgz
tar xzvf Pound-2.0.tgz
cd Pound-2.0
sed "s/-o bin -g bin //g" < Makefile.in > Makefile.in.new
mv Makefile.in.new Makefile.in  # Hit y to override any restrictions
./configure --with-ssl=/usr/local/etc/openssl/ --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install

5. Generate an ssl certificate.

cd /usr/local/etc

You can put the next line in ~/.bash_profile if you want openssl available everytime you open the terminal.

export PATH="/usr/local/etc/openssl/bin:$PATH"
sudo openssl/bin/openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout our_cert.pem \\
    -out our_cert.pem -days 365 -nodes

Fill out the required information to generate the ssl certificate.

6. Create a pound.cfg file.

cd /usr/local/etc # You should already be here

This next piece uses a trick called a heredoc. Instead of copying and pasting the below command into terminal, you could also just copy and paste the text into pound.cfg in /usr/local/etc/pound.cfg

cat > ~/tmp_file <<EOF
ListenHTTP
  Address 0.0.0.0
  Port    80
  Service
    BackEnd
      Address 127.0.0.1
      Port    3000
    End
  End
End

ListenHTTPS
  Address 0.0.0.0
  Port    443
  Cert    "/usr/local/etc/our_cert.pem"
  # pass along https hint
  AddHeader "X-Forwarded-Proto: https"
  HeadRemove "X-Forwarded-Proto"
  Service
    BackEnd
      Address 127.0.0.1
      Port    3000
    End
  End
End
EOF
sudo mv ~/tmp_file ./pound.cfg

7. Make sure that pound works.

pound -v -c

You should see Config file /usr/local/etc/pound.cfg is OK.
If not, make sure that you copied your config file correctly
using ‘cat pound.cfg’ to view what is in the file.

8. Turn off apache (assuming it’s running).

sudo apachectl stop

9. Turn on pound.

sudo pound -v

10. Start mongrel/webrick/lighty.

cd ~/work/my_killer_app
mongrel_rails start # Or ruby script/server (if you're still on lighty/webrick)

11. Marvel at your wonderous creation by pointing your browser to http://localhost/ or https://localhost/

TODO (feel free to do these and post how to do them in the comments):

• Make pound start when the computer loads.
• Use darwin ports to install zlib and openssl, but not pound.

[Model.find(1), Model.find(2), Model.find(3)] -
  [Model.find(1)] != [Model.find(2), Model.find(3)]

This does not behave as you would expect, because array subtraction compares elements on their object ids. Each find generates a new object, with a new id, so subtraction does not work. To get the behavior desired, do this instead:

to_be_removed = [Model.find(1)].map{|m| m.id}
[Model.find(1), Model.find(2), Model.find(3)].
  delete_if{|m| to_be_removed.include?(m.id)}

It’s not as beautiful, but it gets the job done.

So yes, working two jobs is keeping my quite busy right now, leaving very little time for any decent posting. Wait until next week, when I’ll once again make you privy to the thoughts bubbling around in my head.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a nice unordered list of what’s been catching my eye:

• Camping is awesome.
• Zed Shaw and his Mongrel project rock!
• I want to build a proxy server in ruby using mongrel and mongrel plugins but don’t know when I’ll have time.
• I want a piece of software that will scan and parse weather, news headlines, and my top rss feeds, placing them into a video file that I can watch on my iPod.
• Java will probably move into the same category as VB in my about page.

You can look look forward to (or know to avoid) posts on these topics as soon as I’m able to return.

So what does this have to do with programming? A lot I believe. As programmers, many of us may know how to play a song or two. We can program in Java, for instance, or write a web service in Ruby. But, the ability to play a song does not the master make. How many of us can get to ‘C’ from anywhere on the guitar? How many of us can honestly say they know how to build an array from scratch in any language? How about create an object? Sure, we can all use Array#new or class Bob { }. But, could we make our own Array#new if necessary?

It is knowledge of this sort that separates the good programmer that knows how to use tools from the great programmer that knows how to make them. The great programmer, confident in his ability to build tools to suit his needs, can be comfortable using any language thrown in front of him. The good programmer on the other hand, shouts like a fanboy about the greatness of his languge, be it ruby, java, or python, out of fear that he may need to learn new tools.