RubyConf - round table discussion

This was a q&a session with Matz. Here are the ones I caught:

• Q: Is 1.8.4 planned for release by Christmas. A: Yes.
• Q: Will there be a Ruby spec? How would it happen? A: This may be a good time to fix a spec for 1.8.x. As for 1.9, it is virtually impossible for this to happen because there will be a lot of experimentation going on to see what can go into 2.0. If anyone wants a 1.8 spec and are willing to do the work to write it, they should contact Matz.
• Q: What kinds of things can we look forward to in forthcoming releases? A: Wait for tomorrow's keynotes.
• Q: Why is there is so much growth in Ruby interest. A: Umm, Rails? There's something there to Ruby that appeals to developers which must be doing it.
• Q: What is your take on the Ruby Gems debate? A: I love Ruby Gems. It's OK to pull into the standard distro, but preferably after some remaining issues are resolved, for example on how to integrate with other packaging systems (such as Debian's). It could get into 1.8.4 but as is, would not be supported by the Ruby core developers.
• Q: Do you feel that Ruby is still "yours"? Or is it outside your realm now? A: "Sometimes I see what you don't see. I don't want to be a dictator, I try to explain eveything before I make a decision, but I do want to be understood before I make a final decision."
• Q: Did you ever expect Ruby to be this big. A: "No, never. I never expected to be *this* big."
• Q: Did you start Ruby to scratch a particular itch? A: "No. The only problem I wanted to solve was to fill my spare time. It was during the depression time in Japan, and I had a job, but no assignment, and I was bored, so I started Ruby."
• Q: Do you see Ruby being used very differently around the world? A: "I am not sure, but I've heard of some people in Japan doing climate analysis using Ruby on NEC super computers."
• Q: Are there any features in other languages that you admire that you want to bring in to Ruby that you haven't had a chance to pull in yet? A: "The selector-namespace in Javascript ... and several other things."
• Q: Are there any projects in Ruby that need to be done where there just isn't enough manpower to complete? A: I think it's not a matter of human resources, but it's kind of hard for us to find bugs. So please use Ruby and find those bugs and submit them. Especially with those weird language features.
• Q: Are there any plans to switch to Subversion? A: We'll wait until there is something compelling to switch to because of the overhead of porting all the existing tools from CVS.
• Q: You've said that you preferred using underscores rather than camel case for variable names. Have you noticed other instances where your culture influenced your language design decisions? A: The use of exist (rather than exists) is an example of that difference. I don't know what others there are, but I am sure there are other culturally influnced design decisions.
• Q: Ruby seems to be a good educational language. What do you think? A: Ruby was not designed for beginners, but designed for me. I worry that the advanced features would confuse a beginner. "Ruby could be a good candidate, but I am not sure it is the best."
• Q: How does the Ruby core development happen? Do you use continuous builds? TDD? A: I am a very bad software manager. Sometimes I even check in code that fails to compile.
• Q: How involved have you been in the new VM design? Have yoy been trying to make sure the new design will not preclude new language features. A: If he has any problems he can ask me on the mailing list. It should not be the case that the new VM will limit new features. I am not going to allow any drastic changes, even in 2.0, so it shouldn't matter.
• Q: ... A: I can tell you only about the future in the language field. Languages should be enhanced to handle the massive scalability needs in the future.
• Q: What other languages do you suggest people look at? A: IO and Haskell. Older languages include LISP, Scheme. Q: What about Perl? A: "It depends on what you want to learn..."
• Q: How did Ruby change your life? A: It changed it quite a bit. I switched to develop it full time about 8 years ago. I travel a lot through Japan, America and Europe. I wrote a few books and many articles. It changed it a lot.
• Q: Have you ever been recruited to do work with anyone? A: Never. A few years ago, the ThoughtWorks guys approached me, but I think they were joking. (I asked him this in the morning around breakfast, but was still caught off gaurd when I heard him say this for the second time.)
• Q: What are your mainly daily activites? Are they working in Ruby or in C? A: Most of the time I read emails and mailing lists or write small scripts in Ruby. Oh, I also write one to two articles a month.
• Q: What is your favorite editor? A: Emacs.
• Q: Perl 6 stole some ideas from Ruby. Are you following Perl 6? Or are there any ideas you're considering stealing from them? A: I am seriously considering traits. Making modules behave more like traits.
• Q: What do you think of other major languages, such as Java, Perl, Python? A: "They all have very, very good points. Many good points, I studied them, I stole some of them. Things I don't like about them is that they're not Ruby, there not under my control."
• Q: I imagine there will be some sort of CodeFest tonight. What would you like to come out of that? A: "I don't know. Every CodeFest does more than I expect. I expect to be surprised. I mean surprised in a good way."

At this point, I just got too tired of typing. I expect RubyConf for stragglers will have the audio up shortly.

Tags: rubyconf 2005 ruby interview talk.