From: ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2002-02-23T10:40:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Setting the Ruby continued

In article <m2d6yx2ib1.fsf@zip.local.thomases.com>,
Dave Thomas  <Dave@PragmaticProgrammer.com> wrote:
>Paulo Schreiner <paulo@bewnet.com.br> writes:
>
>> I would fell better, if, at least for every patch accepted on the
>> ruby-dev list, there would be a summary in english in ruby-talk,
>
>A summary of all patches is already distributed in the ruby-cvs
>mailing that is generated by the commit. You can subscribe to receive
>these. The messages aren't always totally self explanatory, but I've
>found it possible to follow what's going on using them.
>
>Trust me - I know the frustration of not being understand what's being
>said on the Japanese lists. I've spent over a year with excite.co.jp
>trying to translate messages that look interesting.  However, at the
>same time it does seem somewhat rude for we relative newcomers in the
>west to gatecrash an existing development community and start insisting
>that they communicate differently. Think how you'll feel in 2010 when
>Chinese is the dominant language on the net and some group of Chinese
>users start suggesting that we should use Chinese to discuss our work
>on Ruby 5.0. Even if we wanted to accommodate the request, not all of
>us would be able to.

This is within the realm of possibility...

>
>I suggest a different approach (and one that I think is already
>happening). Interesting projects will attract good people. Let's start
>interesting projects. The core developers who will participate. And
>we'll all be talking. The lists will find their own center of gravity.
>

How much traffic is on the ruby-dev list?  Would it be possible for 
someone who can translate from Japanese to English could give us a weekly 
summary of ruby-dev highlights (kind of like the current Ruby Weekly News 
- actually, it could even be an entry on that page).  I think there is 
some frustration out there (probably not justified) that maybe there isn't 
much activity going on to create Ruby 1.8 or the next generation (Rite).  
If we had some kind of weekly or bi-weekly summary of activity it would go 
a long way toward helping those outside of Ruby-dev get an idea of what's 
going on.  It doesn't have to be exhaustive, just the highlights like the 
RWN.

Also, while I think the suggestion for starting interesting projects is 
indeed a good one, I don't think it addresses the concern that was brought 
up by the original poster of the thread.  At this point we can easily 
start interesting projects, but they are peripheral to core Ruby 
development (usually they are Ruby modules) - I think he was wanting to 
know how to become involved in development of the Ruby core code.  A case 
in point:  I belive, if I recall correctly, that there is someone in Japan 
working on the Rite bytecode VM and, if I understand correctly, it is 
related to core next-generation Ruby development.  There is also someone 
working on a project called Bytecode Ruby - I'm not sure they are each 
aware of what the other is doing so we have a duplication of effort going 
on where we could benefit from both of these groups cooperating.  I'm not 
sure how we go about doing this (maybe we have to make more use of the 
bablefish) but it does seem important.

Phil