From: John Carter <john.carter@...>
Date: 2002-07-26T08:44:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Opinion on Ruby maturity, the missing things

On Fri, 26 Jul 2002, Paul E.C. Melis wrote:

> 2) there's no (bytecode) compiler.
> 
> Commerical applications will not use Ruby until there's a way to guard Ruby
> code from being used by others. The possibility of compiling scripts to
> bytecode would be a great leap forward in this respect.

<in_wisecracking_tone_of_voice>
  Is that why no one uses Java? You can decompile the .jar files at 
  will....
</in_wisecracking_tone_of_voice>

<more_serious>
  Clearly, no, that is not the problem. Speed is perhaps an issue, but 
  probably more importantly, Ruby is percieved by Pointy Haired Bosses as 
  weird Jap thing that nobody knows / uses.

  I have yet to see a perl app that is shipped only in bytecode form, yet 
  Perl is weirder than Ruby and more popular with the PHB's
</more_serious>

Real Maturity issues of Ruby..
  1) Speed compared to Perl
  2) RAA doesn't yet match CPAN. (But then CPAN is so huge and the 
     crossed up dependencies so sprawling these days, it is almost 
     unusable...)
  3) Needs to come bundled with a larger slice of the RAA. 
  4) Needs a "ship standalone installer + ruby + myapp + modules my app 
     uses" thing.
  5) Needs a better cross platform GUI/OS layer, bundled standard.

Still, none of the above stops me from advocating Ruby as my language of 
choice...

If I were to prioritise that list I would say :-
  1) bundle more of the RAA with the standard package,
  2) and create a standalone installer thing that would 
     allow trivial installation of Ruby programs. ie. Telling users to first d/load 
     and install vx.y.z of Ruby and Vxi.yi of RAA package_i where i goes 
     from 1 to lots doesn't work!
 
-- 


John Carter                             Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics                        Fax   : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch                Email : john.carter@tait.co.nz
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