From: Benoit Cerrina <benoit.cerrina@...>
Date: 2002-03-24T12:57:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Windows version of Ruby (proposals)

I work at Dassault Systems, this is a very big software company specialyzed
in CAD/CAM and PLM software.
Our software used to run on 4 unix platforms (solaris, irix, aix, hp-ux) and
on mainframes, in now runs on the 4 unix and windows NT/2000/XP.
There used to be an average of 2 unix box on each developer desk (we are
talking about more than a thousand developers). But now most developers (4
out of 5) have only an NT box, the development is done on NT, compilation
and automatic testing is also done on the unix platforms and work on unix is
only done when a bug has been detected by testing or industrialization which
is only visible on a given unix.  Even the developers (like I) who work on
server projects working only on unix work on an NT with a remote DISPLAY.
This to say I definitely don't think that most developers are on unix, a
good share but not most.
In this context if you want to know what I do with ruby:  first my interest
is only personal, nothing to do with Dassault.  I used it to write an
interface to our source code control system which runs in the embedded ruby
interpreter in vim allowing me not to use visual studio (which I dislike
compared to vim).
Benoit