Thanks for the update Matt. I haven't actually used MacRuby since my last app, although would love to see it for iOS (as well as keeping OS X support). I guess that would get a lot more people interested too, given the success and popularity of the iOS platform. I think most of your other suggestions are spot on too - and it's great to see Evan willing to help guide the project.
Re helping out, I know I mentioned starting a ruby forum before (MetaRuby.com) with a feature to allow any Ruby project to host their forum on it (by means of a dedicated section, with their own moderators etc) but I just haven't got around to it - however I do have a unused forum license that I could use to set up MetaRuby pretty soon, if you guys need somewhere to get together/discuss things/stick important threads etc I'm happy to do it - so long as nobody minds the default forum skin for now - I'll get around to doing a custom skin eventually, just don't have the time for it yet. I did do a very quick mock up ages ago (although the logo has since changed - it was just to give some of my friends an idea (who were all very keen to see it)) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/azzzz/MR.jpg Anyway, let me know what you think. Cheers, Aston On 5 Apr 2012, at 23:06, Matt Aimonetti wrote: > Many of you have been wondering what is going on with the MacRuby project > given the lack of up-to-date releases and overall communication. > I feel we owe you some explanation. > > As a lot of you have noticed, our de-facto project leader Laurent Sansonetti > has been M.I.A since October 2011, his last post to this mailing list being > http://lists.macosforge.org/pipermail/macruby-devel/2011-October/008168.html > announcing MacRuby 0.11 really soon. > His last commit was a change of license back in October: > https://github.com/MacRuby/MacRuby/commit/ac2a7a8e678d19e44d3c64a9508a8370d082dca2 > > Laurent is fine. As described on his twitter http://twitter.com/lrz and > LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/sansonetti accounts, Laurent is no longer > with Apple and is clearly also no longer directly involved with the MacRuby > project on a day-to-day basis. > Laurent is currently busy with another project and and hopes to someday be > able to contribute to the MacRuby project again. > > While no one on this list can speak for Apple, and Apple as a company does > not tend to comment on its future plans or intentions, I think it's > reasonable to imagine that Apple would be more than happy to have the MacRuby > project decide for itself what its destiny is and how to achieve it. If they > did not want the community to be involved or drive such a process, they would > not have released MacRuby as open source or created the project > infrastructure to facilitate it. It is time for us to stop looking to Apple > to provide guidance, leadership and coding for the project, in other words, > and take on those challenges for ourselves! MacRuby is already very > powerful and comparatively stable as a development platform, now it's time > for us to take things to the next level. > > I personally think it will finally allow us to communicate and collaborate on > the actual process of development as it occurs, rather than the previous > practice of simply seeing code appear from some hidden, internal branch which > was driven almost exclusively by a single person > > Doing all of this in the open should lead to far more people being interested > in the project, not just as users but as developers and leaders. No one > rushes to fill a position that is occupied by someone else, but now we have a > vacuum to fill, and that can be a good thing in terms of encouraging more > people to step forward. > > Here is how I see things and I would love to hear more about what you guys > think. > MacRuby is a great project, but: > the target audience & projects aren't clear > the target platform (OS X) isn't the one we all really want to target (iOS) > Cocoa's API is awesome but not user friendly/easy to grasp > > What I'd like to suggest is the following: > > 1. Define clear goals for MacRuby that we can easily evaluate: > Focus primarily on making MacRuby the tool to use for quickly prototyping OS > X and iOS applications. > Remove dependency on libauto so MacRuby can run post Mountain Lion and on iOS. > 2. Increase the number of contributors: > Define areas of contribution: > implementation itself (mainly requires C, C++ knowledge) > prototyping focus (templates, wrapper APIs, modules, tools: a full ecosystem > aimed at being more productive) > documentation (getting started, guides, FAQs, wiki, demos, hacker guides) > support > empower contributors: > move the website to github for easier contribution > better release process and roadmap > better process to review pull requests & give commit rights > 3. Improve communication: > start an active and official chat room (IRC, campfire like or something else) > open discussions about plans for the project and progress made > better collaboration with other Ruby implementation teams (Rubinius, JRuby, > MagLev and of course Matz/C Ruby) > > Let's not forget that MacRuby is and will remain a free Open Source project > and that means we need your help and support. > Without you, this project doesn't mean much so please voice your opinion and > if you decide to do so, become an active participant to MacRuby's success. > > I would like to thank Apple for their historical support and Laurent for > starting this project and all his work so far. Without those contributions, > MacRuby would never have existed and the project will more than welcome any > future participation by either Apple or Laurent. > At the same time, I don't think the future of this project can or should rest > on the shoulders of a single corporate entity, or that of a single > individual. That does not encourage the kind of broad participation, or the > kind of overall longevity (in the form of future generations of contributors) > that Open Source projects really need to survive over the long term. > Finally, I'd like to make clear that I see myself more in a role of a > facilitator than a technical leader on the order of what Laurent was. This > role has been left vacant for more than 6 months now and needs to be filled > by a group of people with greater technical skills than mine. Additional > contributors are therefore more than welcome to join the team, and their > support will be as much appreciated as it is needed. > > Finally, in addition to the already numerous great MacRuby contributors and > soon to become contributors, Evan Phoenix (Rubinius) agreed to act as an > advisor for the project. > > So, MacRuby community what do you think? > > > > > - Matt > _______________________________________________ > MacRuby-devel mailing list > MacRuby-devel@lists.macosforge.org > http://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/macruby-devel
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