I think you're talking across each other a bit here: 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.
To me, the second sentence is utter nonsense. I agree with Joseph on that much. But, I also think that if 'using Ruby' is the only differentiating feature about your web development company then you're in other sorts of trouble. To me, that's starting down the closed-source road - I don't want my competitor to have the same tools I've got/helped develop. The goal should be to be winning jobs and satisfying customers with the quality of your work, regardless of the tools you or your competitors use. But then, I'm not currently running a web dev shop so I understand the commercial reality might preclude a lot of people from chasing this goal... One final point, in my experience, the people making Ruby or anything else that's 'cool' available to the Enterprise generally work in/for one. Like any embarrassing topic, the long-suffering, overpaid and unchallenged friend is actually themselves. It's why I hack on Scala in the evenings and scheme up ways to get it used in the Java shop where I work. -glen. On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Joseph Pearson < [email protected]> wrote: > > On 29/07/2009, at 11:19 AM, Pete Yandell wrote: > > > Of course we could take advantage of the advancement of software > > development practices to make even better tools, and come up with even > > better techniques, but the industry might catch up to those too. Where > > would it end? I mean, it could open up the possibility of developing > > whole new classes of software! Sounds like way too much hard work to > > me. > > > > I'm frightened now. Sure, we can murder Charles and keep it quiet > > (what happens in the Ruby community stays in the Ruby community.) But > > what happens if someone outside the Ruby community invents a cool > > software development tool? I shudder to think what might happen. > > Pete, I'm not saying "Ruby should be insular". That's plainly daft, > equally as daft as turning it into an establishment technology. It is > also, given the community we have right now, wonderfully unlikely. > > I'm saying work on the cool stuff. Don't be distracted trying to get > your friend in Corp X using the same tools you are, just because she's > envious of them. > > Loyalty to technology is at heart nonsensical. It begets silliness > like language wars, and even greater silliness like interpreter wars. > Swap technologies -- within Ruby, beyond Ruby -- as they make business > sense to you. And when someone says "Ruby is in a lot of trouble > unless we get it into the enterprise", recognise it for what it is: > not just wildly wrong, but a viewpoint actually harmful to the things > that make your business awesome (or in extreme cases, viable at all). > > - J > > -- > > Joseph Pearson | software inventor | inventivelabs.com.au | +61384150866 > > > > > -- Glen Maddern --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
