From: Evan Klitzke Date: 2007-09-13T12:48:50+09:00 Subject: Re: IronRuby On Thu, 2007-09-13 at 00:15 +0900, Lloyd Linklater wrote: > 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. I read their new version of the open > source agreement that says that if you copy the smallest bit from their > code that you MUST include the entire MS disclaimer and sundry stuff. > > Also, I heard that they are going to add windows specific calls so that > the user could "optimize" his program with the "optional" calls. This > is what they did with java and Sun was outraged, sued and won. Now, MS > came out with a more or less windows specific java in the form of C#. > > Are they going to do this with ruby? If so, will we be forced to write > windows ruby just to have it cross platform compatible? > > Has anyone else been reading these things? I can't really speak to the IronRuby situation, but I have been keeping track of the progress Microsoft has been making with IronPython, and so far that has been a good project. In particular, the IronPython folks make it a big priority to make IronPython 100% faithful to the Python language description (IIRC they even run the mainstream CPython regression tests). If IronRuby ends up like IronPython, the community should be pleased; a new implementation can only draw more people to the language (especially if it creates an easy way for C# developers to transition to the language). Of course it could be devastating if Microsoft ends up embarking on an embrace and extend type of strategy (as they did with Java), but so far I don't see any nefarious actions on their part. -- Evan Klitzke