From: Michael Davis <mdavis@...>
Date: 2002-04-29T11:55:53+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby as replacement for VB?

> I'd regard Aruna as "just another soon-to-fail Internet IPO" except
> that they actually have a real name computer scientist around...  The
> thing that's surprising is that they've been around since '96, and
> have neither boomed nor busted.


Well, Aruna is not an internet IPO and is not soon-to-fail.  Here is a 
brief history:

I found myself out of work a year and half ago when my contract ended. 
I also found that my skills were a little dated and I decided to take a 
little time to change that.  I wanted to learn OO and stumbled onto Ruby 
while researching for an OO language to learn.  I quickly fell in love 
with Ruby.  In order to learn Ruby properly, I felt I needed a project 
and Aruna DB was started. After the first release of Aruna, I found 
myself wanting to add a front end to Aruna and Locana was born.  The 
reason for the commercial looking web site was my brief and unsuccessful 
attempt to attract a little consulting work or advertising.  I plan to 
change the Aruna web site to RDoc in the near future.  RDoc did not 
exist when I created the documentation for Aruna.

I am currently investing as much of time as possible in completing the 
next release of Locana.  I have two more releases planned before I 
intend to return to Aruna.  Both projects are open source and freeware.

My motivation for creating a VB replacement was inspired by a client in 
CA for whom I created a membership application in Access.  I would love 
to upgrade my client's membership application but have not found an 
adequate alternative to Access that I would like to use.

My long term goal is to earn a living customizing Locana, Aruna, or the 
membership application I intend to created for companies.  This implies 
that I am counting on the growing popularity of Ruby.

So, I expect Aruna and Locana to be around a long time unless Ruby never 
gains the popularity that I believe it will.

-- 
Thanks, Michael Davis
Database Architect and Senior Software Engineer, Seva Inc.
Email: mdavis@sevainc.com