From: Eric Armstrong <Eric.Armstrong@...>
Date: 2006-06-06T06:55:45+09:00
Subject: Re: I love Ruby - But how bright is Ruby's Future?

Hector wrote:
> 
> I'm at a point where I'm asking myself if it is worth the trouble for me
> to learn Ruby...
> 
My answer would be yes, not because it is the best language
that will /ever/ be written, but because of the way the
features it has implemented provide an almost unlimited
capacity for future scaling.

That capacity derives from Ruby's ability for
/language extensions/. I wrote at length on that subject
here: http://www.treelight.com/software/ruby/RubyRocks.html

On the other hand, I agree that documentation is an issue.
The situation is getting better, though. (Thank goodness for 
Wiki pages!) And there are several great books.

Too, I really miss the kinds of APIs that are generated
for Java, as well as IDEs that interact with them so
nicely.

So my take at the moment is that it can take several hours
to figure out how to do something, but when I finally do,
the solution is small, clean, and elegant.

So Ruby is where Java was in the mid-90's, but without
the huge investment required to market it, document it,
and make technology additions.

But it is hecka fun...
:_)