Origins of Origin

Origin is just an extraction of Mongoid's criteria into its own gem. In the extraction, I rewrote most of it since over the last 3 years the criteria had gotten some unsavory code in it. With the rewrite, I was able to add more functionality to it, like alias handling, better attribute serialization, the ability to pass any object with a proper serializer (like a document itself), and custom merge strategies. Plus it has the bonus that anyone who wants to leverage the API can use it, and doesn't have to be using Mongoid. It supports every single possible query operation MongoDB can do, and would be quite useful in other gems that don't necessarily need a full-blown data mapper, but would like the DSL—Durran Jordan, author of Mongoid gem.

This was in March 2012! The thoughts have indeed been noble! Origin has since then evolved tremendously but still boasts of being an independent entity. Origin is not a data mapper but a querying Domain-Specific Language (DSL). What makes...