I've been trying to get the "Enterprise" using JRuby for a few years now. It was handy to be able to deploy a Rails App to WebsFear and DB2 as a .war file so that the ops guys in a big insurance company didn't even notice the difference. But this is not really something you *want* to do if you don't have to.
Believe me, I don't think you have to worry about community dilution either. We won't be seeing any exodus of "average enterprise developers" into the Ruby community any time soon - they simply don't care. But we might expose a few good eggs to the beauty of Ruby and the awesomeness of the community along the way. The continued development of JRuby (and other alternative Ruby implementations) can only be a Good Thing. Josh On 29/07/2009, at 9:45 AM, Joseph Pearson wrote: > > 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
