Sinatra has been getting a lot of hype lately as the next great (micro)-framework. In writing apps, diving in, and contributing the reasons for its existence have become more clear. Sinatra is not just a toy or a neat trick, it's the best way to create simple and non-obtrusive web interfaces to sit on top of a new or existing ruby codebase. Sinatra is not a framework - Its a library. My conceit is that Sinatra's greatest achievement will be empowering other ruby projects the ability to 'speak web' and communicate to users and developers through the browser. I'll walk through the basics of Sinatra and give a number of examples of how to make quick use of Sinatra to give your project a light but powerful interface.