From: thefed <fedzor@...>
Date: 2007-11-27T09:17:36+09:00
Subject: Re: "Why I Program In Ruby (And Maybe Why You Shouldn't)"

Excellent post!

Let's face it - it's not like Ruby doesn't have people who want to  
help out.
It's not like we don't have enough supporters. There are tons of  
people in the Ruby
community! Just look at the mailing list! So lets really have a quick  
look at what
the problem is here. We've already ruled out lack of troops. We've  
ruled out lack of
motive. So what's keeping us from creating some unifying standard GUI  
wrapper?
What's keeping us from making some alternate GUI library altogether?  
And that DRB
stuff - couldn't we fix that, too?

Well? Anyone?

Nothing. Well, at least I see it as nothing. You know what we're  
missing? Organization.
It's true, a leader should organize their people into doing something  
productive, but that's
not what Matz is - Matz is a creator. He brought us here, and we have  
to take care of ourselves now.
It's our responsibility to sit down and make Ruby a better language  
for everyone.

I guess on paper/phosphorous (depending on how old you are), it's not  
that hard. Do what Drupel
and have a giant meeting or time frame where everyone just works on  
Ruby. Think about it - if
200 people from around the world just for one summer worked on making  
something better,
wouldn't everyone benefit? 10-20 people working on a unifying GUI  
toolkit. Or maybe even
just a wrapper, so you could specify which toolkit to use! Another   
10-20 working on making
DRB examples better (and maybe regularifying the syntax (sorry for  
the verbalization - blame
Esperanto)), and some other people speeding up some speed deprived  
programs. I guess it
wouldn't be hard, if for one summer people just focused their energy  
on it. I, being a student,
would devote a summer to this in a heartbeat.

Does this mean I should? Probably not. I'm new to Ruby - been  
programming it and anything
for about 9 months now. The gestation period is over, and I'm looking  
to grow to be a better
Ruby developer. However I'm just not good enough. Good god, I'd love  
to help. I'd love to sit
down June 16 and look back at the clock to find it's September, with  
a whole bunch of
enhancements at my fingertips. I could learn so much! A lot of the  
times, I just fail at general
programming - I don't understand algorithms and can't come up with  
ways to solve things.
With this conglomerate programmer experience, I would learn a whole  
bunch, and actually
be a part of something big and meaningful. Given the chance, I would.  
Without hesitation.

So let's start putting some plans together. Get a big group of people  
looking to help out, and then get a list of jobs to do. Meet on IRC  
or a mailing list a couple times a week, put in an hour or three a  
day (I don't know an adult schedule), and then we'd slowly be making  
progress. Give it two months of constant work, and we'll have  
multiple functioning projects, that could soon become standard.

Like I said, I'd do. Would you?

- Ari Brown