From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2002-12-16T09:45:43+09:00
Subject: Re: help -- persuade my boss to adopt ruby

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "W. Kent Starr" <wyzzrd@bellsouth.net>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 6:30 PM
Subject: Re: help -- persuade my boss to adopt ruby


> > I don't think so.  Ruby was his toy at the beginning, 
> 
> Ditto c, c++, lisp, linux, perl, etc.
> Also, ditto the steam engine, the Apple computer, the telephone, the
> airplane, the phonograph, television ad infinitum, by way of
> perspective.
> 
> "God created the world as man's playground; it is the job of science to
> provide the toys."  

Wonderful quote. It's going in my list. Who said it? You? :)

I saw one recently I enjoyed: "If I have not seen as far
as others, it is because giants were standing on my 
shoulders."  ;)
 
> > but this fact
> > does not mean it remains being a toy forever.  
> 
> Ditto (see above examples).
> 
> > Speaking of "features
> > needed for corporate use", we have to define what they are.  
> 
> Extensibility, scalability, cost efficiency, value propagation,
> maintainability, security, productivity, accoutability, logevity.
> 
> Not in any particular order of priority (which indeed varies from
> company to company and from project to project within a given company.)
> 
> So, where does Ruby fit into the picture here? How does it compare to
> other mainstream languages (which in the US are c/c++, java, perl and to
> a lesser degree python and smalltalk.

My simplistic view: If Perl can get a foot in the door, so can 
Ruby. Perhaps even a leg. But things take time.

As for Java, it didn't get its huge mindshare from technical
superiority, but from hype; it was marketing-driven rather 
than technology-driven. (Although I'm not the Java-hater that
so many are. I much prefer it to C++, for instance.)

> And how does Ruby, or ~any~ of the above stack up with regard to the
> "next big thing", which is likely to be some kind of distributed/grid
> computing environment, possibly XML-based?

Interesting. Who's speculating along those lines?

> For that matter, where do "corporations", as presently structured, fit
> into and increasingly open-sourced global information environment?
> 
> Some of the possible answers are technical oriented, others more
> socialogical in nature, with the "line" between the two, vis a vis the
> "big picture" increasingly indistinct.

When someone asks this kind of question, I always
shrug and say, "No speaka English."

Hal