I want to put it to you -- to you lot directly -- that we've got this backasswards. This is the sort of thing we tend to cheer on:
"I believe that JRuby is the most crucial technology for Ruby's future right now. Regardless of how fast or how solid the C or C++ based Ruby implementations get, the vast majority of large organizations are *never* going to run them. That's the truth. If we can leverage JRuby to grab 1-2% of the Java market, we'll *double* the size of the Ruby community. If we completely lose the Java platform to alternatives, Rubyists may not have the luxury of remaining Rubyists in the future. It's that big a deal." That's Charles Nutter (http://blog.headius.com/2009/07/jrubys-importance-to-ruby-and-erubycon.html ). There's no doubt that JRuby is an impressive technological achievement, but with her mission, she's no friend of ours. Right now, Ruby (and Rails) is our competitive advantage. We shouldn't be worrying about how to get Ruby into enterprise. We should be worrying about Ruby getting into enterprise. All this stems from a misguided empathy as developers for our brothers and sisters stuck in enterprise. Stuck with awkward languages, copycat frameworks, dubious projects and secure, well-paid jobs. On average they're earning two or three times what we are, for work half as dangerous. If they want to share our good fortune, they can have the guts to make the jump. Or they can suck it up in Java/.NET/PHP. Does Ruby need this? Maybe, if it wants to win the popularity contest. But we have no great investment in that. Our investment is in the awesomeness of our community, which these efforts ("let's double the size!") throw into question. Don't forget: this is business. And that's your Wednesday morning rant. :) - J -- Joseph Pearson | software inventor | inventivelabs.com.au | +61384150866 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
