From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2007-11-14T23:43:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Why are so many people confused about "Enterprise" software?

Alexey Verkhovsky wrote:
> On Nov 13, 2007 10:49 AM, Kyle Schmitt <kyleaschmitt@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It boils down to a few things: availability of paid support;
>> availability of _experienced_ contractors; someone else using it
>> first.
> 
> In my books, the defining feature of the Big Corporate IT (aka
> Enterprise) is "a zoo of technologies spanning the last 15-30 years of
> the history of  computing, that need special care, feeding and an
> ability to talk to each other".
> 
> Otherwise, your post gave me a few chuckles because you just about
> gave a bullet point list of everything ThoughtWorks has done / is
> doing to help Ruby cross the chasm. Save for the "killer business app"
> thing... :)
> 

Actually, as I almost posted in another thread, I think Ruby has two 
strong niches. One is Rails, of course. But the other is the whole 
milieu of continuous integration, test-driven and behavior-driven 
development, and "pragmatic/agile" processes. I personally think *that* 
is a killer business app. After all, given all of that infrastructure, 
there's no reason you can't use it to develop non-Ruby software, 
hardware, airliners, motor vehicles or the tax code for a medium-sized 
nation, is there? ;)