From: "John Lam (CLR)" <jflam@...>
Date: 2007-09-13T03:19:54+09:00
Subject: Re: IronRuby

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounce@example.com [mailto:list-bounce@example.com] On Behalf Of Lloyd Linklater
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 8:15 AM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: IronRuby

>> I have heard disturbing things about IronRuby.  The short version
>> is that MS wants to get into the open source arena as that seems to
>> be their biggest competition, but not in the way that those already
>> there are.  I heard that they want to change the rules for open
>> source to insinuate themselves everywhere.

Since I'm the guy that runs the IronRuby project at Microsoft. You can direct any and all questions directly to me. Just because it's written on the Internet doesn't mean that it's true :)

We're building a Ruby implementation because there are lots of folks on our platform who want us to do exactly this. I built RubyCLR before coming to Microsoft, and it was after folks could see what was possible via a bridge that they wanted something more.

IronRuby integrates very well with the .NET platform, and is also a driving changes in the direction of the Dynamic Language Runtime which provides much of the runtime services used by the IronRuby compiler. We're also building several other languages on top of DLR, namely IronPython from my team as well as VBX and JSX from some Microsoft partner teams. There are external folks who are building a Lisp (http://www.codeplex.com/IronLisp) implementation, a Smalltalk (http://vistasmalltalk.wordpress.com/) implementation among others.

You really should judge my team based on our actions as opposed to random comments by folks with blogs / email readers. We're doing a lot of things which are unprecedented at Microsoft to push the envelope in our interactions with the open source community. Much of my leadership really gets this and we're bending over backwards to do the right thing.

A couple of recent things that we've done is: a) submit Ms-PL for OSI certification, and b) release the IronRuby source code on Rubyforge *and* accept contributions back from the community.

These things are a good indication of positive progress in the company. Sure, not everyone shares our worldview, but change rarely comes about by throwing rocks.

Thanks,
-John