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When will the Ruby fanboys stop being such fanboys? This is just more of the same masturbatory "we're great" bullshit which seems to be so popular in the Ruby c

When will the Ruby fanboys stop being such fanboys? This is just more of the same masturbatory "we're great" bullshit which seems to be so popular in the Ruby community. Referring to Rails: "we sent out a press release to everyone we knew suggesting that we would be building all future projects on this new open source framework that nobody had ever heard of." So I guess I shouldn't expect much level-headed writing from a guy who would make that stupid a business decision. How about taking six months to quietly build some internal sites, a couple pilots for clients, and to actually learn the language and framework? My shop's transitioning into using Drupal for most projects, but it's not as simple as flicking a switch. I like this nugget too: "Ruby has captured the hearts and imaginations of artists and the poets." Both the "artists" and the "poets" links go to blogs of people who are pretty obviously software developers first and foremost.

raganwald 18y ago
You know, there's a lot of room in the world for people who make sensible business decisions, who don't get caught up in hype, who don't consider their work to be art or poetry or music. But I hope there will always be room for people who think what they're doing is great and who have an incurable enthusiasm and optimism for it. If that isn't level-headed, I say fantastic. How very dull and drab our world would be if nobody ever fell in love with technology.
- thomasmallen 18y ago
  I didn't say that masturbating is necessarily a bad thing, I just don't like watching others do it.
  - raganwald 18y ago
    I can't go along with your simile on this one. You sound just as emotionally invested in this issue, but from a very negative, dark perspective. I hope you find happiness elsewhere.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
- jon_dahl 18y ago
  Well put, and this is a great article. I use Ruby, and I don't consider myself a fanboy. I know that Ruby and Python are roughly equivalent in most ways; that Java and .NET are better than Ruby for some systems; that the web is run on PHP and Perl; and that there are more powerful languages out there. But man, I really enjoy Ruby. I find it expressive, powerful, and beautiful, and I enjoy going to work in the morning, especially the (rare) days where I can write code from start to finish. Does that make me a fanboy?
stcredzero 18y ago
Thinking you're great is not a bad thing. If it keeps you from listening to and learning from others and improving, then it's a liability. Ruby and Python have some prominent, very polished programs. This needs to be maintained and even improved. The audience-facing part especially. Have responsive, slick looking, featureful GUIs. Anything less, and the user prejudice will be that it's the language's fault for being non-compiled and therefore somehow backwards and slow. Note that I said user prejudice. Not programmers. You need to pay attention to the PR received by end-users, even though it's not terribly deep. It still counts for a lot! Why do you think car companies spend so much time thinking about how they're going to bend sheet-metal? Usually, little of the motivation is aerodynamics. The biggest part is making sure your product looks good. It doesn't matter if you'd be the most talented in the room, if you look so ratty they don't even let you through the door.

raganwald 18y ago

You know, there's a lot of room in the world for people who make sensible business decisions, who don't get caught up in hype, who don't consider their work to be art or poetry or music. But I hope there will always be room for people who think what they're doing is great and who have an incurable enthusiasm and optimism for it. If that isn't level-headed, I say fantastic. How very dull and drab our world would be if nobody ever fell in love with technology.

thomasmallen 18y ago
I didn't say that masturbating is necessarily a bad thing, I just don't like watching others do it.
- raganwald 18y ago
  I can't go along with your simile on this one. You sound just as emotionally invested in this issue, but from a very negative, dark perspective. I hope you find happiness elsewhere.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
jon_dahl 18y ago
Well put, and this is a great article. I use Ruby, and I don't consider myself a fanboy. I know that Ruby and Python are roughly equivalent in most ways; that Java and .NET are better than Ruby for some systems; that the web is run on PHP and Perl; and that there are more powerful languages out there. But man, I really enjoy Ruby. I find it expressive, powerful, and beautiful, and I enjoy going to work in the morning, especially the (rare) days where I can write code from start to finish. Does that make me a fanboy?

stcredzero 18y ago

Thinking you're great is not a bad thing. If it keeps you from listening to and learning from others and improving, then it's a liability. Ruby and Python have some prominent, very polished programs. This needs to be maintained and even improved. The audience-facing part especially. Have responsive, slick looking, featureful GUIs. Anything less, and the user prejudice will be that it's the language's fault for being non-compiled and therefore somehow backwards and slow. Note that I said user prejudice. Not programmers. You need to pay attention to the PR received by end-users, even though it's not terribly deep. It still counts for a lot! Why do you think car companies spend so much time thinking about how they're going to bend sheet-metal? Usually, little of the motivation is aerodynamics. The biggest part is making sure your product looks good. It doesn't matter if you'd be the most talented in the room, if you look so ratty they don't even let you through the door.