From: David Vallner <david@...>
Date: 2006-02-17T08:00:46+09:00
Subject: Re: Don't let this happen to Ruby, pleeeeease?

Dňa Štvrtok 16 Február 2006 22:48 Glenn Smith napísal:
> This is quite a good article I just read via a link on artima (I think).
>
> http://www.pyrasun.com/mike/mt/archives/2005/01/09/20.57.06/
>
> I was just thinking as I read it that it has some parallels with how I see
> "the ruby community" from the perspective of an "outsider".
>

Not really. Different language. I took a brief look at Groovy hoping it could 
ease up a job at a Java house, and the fact it's "almost Ruby except not in 
subtle important points the authors didn't like" pretty much scared me away 
instantly.

Also a different phase of development. Ruby has been more or less 
syntactically and otherwise stable for ages, and despite being criticised for 
lack of library availabilty, is already good enough to roll out 
production-quality applications.

Groovy is completely, utterly unrelated to Ruby as far as the "life story" and 
the future is concerned.

> (snip)
> It's just that, well, the actual Ruby exposure on the net is a bit weak, to
> somebody like me who doesn't have the time to read every mail on the
> mailing list.  Just simple things like a roadmap of what to expect from
> Ruby - what's in the latest release for example, when's the next one, and
> what's planned for 1.9? When exactly IS Rite going to be available.  Is the
> new super-duper website ever going to be finished?
>

Reading every mail on the ML is a) unnecessary, and probably also b) unhelpful 
for the sort of questions you're asking.  Nobody does that.

What's in the latest release? Read the release changelogs. Or look at _why's 
"What's Shiny and New in Ruby 1.8.0" for a subjective pick for the attention 
impaired at http://whytheluckystiff.net/articles/rubyOneEightOh.html

When's the next release? When it's done. Maybe it's more of a question to ask 
on ruby-dev; maybe not. Ruby doesn't have a regular release cycle - live with 
it.

http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?Changes+in+Ruby+1.9 is the first thing google 
spits out for "ruby 1.9 changes". Nuff said. 2.0 isn't supposed to be as 
groundbreaking a change as for example Perl6 will be to Perl5, so don't 
expect to see the programming language to end all programming languages if 
you don't see it now.

It's very likely in my opinion that YARV will be Rite when it's done. Follow 
up on that one, it's not really a regular topic on ruby-talk though.

Mind you, considering the fact Ruby isn't to my knowledge actually supported 
by any major industrial players, or at least the fact isn't strutted about 
any. This also means there's no marketing going on a scale comparable to 
let's say .NET that's being spoonfed to you and forced down your every pore. 
And even despite the above, it still managed to gain a following and 
presence, but it means you have to take matters into your own hands if you 
want to stay informed.

David Vallner