From: Richard Drake <rdrake98@...>
Date: 2005-12-23T22:02:50+09:00
Subject: Re: Bruce Eckel and Ruby


Martin Fowler wrote:

> I know Bruce moderately, well enough to be pretty damn sure that
> monetary motives are well below his radar (for goodness sake he makes
> his books available free on the internet, which is more than I've ever
> had courage to do.) People are very quick to slam other people's
> integrity on the internet. Bruce's skin has probably thickened in time,
> but it still hurts me when it happens to me, so I feel inclined to
> defend him. I've always had the impression that this kind of thing
> happens rarely in the ruby community, I would wish that to be true.

Agreed. Fervently.

Background as follows: my first post on comp.lang.ruby. My first
month using this beautiful language commercially. The first time
I've discussed Mr Eckel since meeting him in London c1988 - as
John Haggins of Zortech tried to build interest in his brand new
product, billed the first true C++ compiler in the world.

My love in those days was Smalltalk-80 and its derivatives. But
some things one has to do for money. That motivation is always
there, for all of us, at some level, surely?

I found Bruce's recent article very helpful, especially his insights
on the sad plight of those who put their hope in "enterprise" Java.

I love the friendly feel of the Ruby community, old-style.

Thanks to Matz, to all Pragmatic persons, to David HH and
many other early cheerleaders, not least Mr Fowler.

What a wonderful thing to experience, to be part of a productive
global community. With everything for free.

Free to do better, in this case, hopefully.

Richard