Should IronRuby be called NSignificant?

Update:  You’re more than welcome to read my angry rant below.  However, I felt it would be more responsible if I summed up a few points right here at the very beginning:

1. Dynamic languages are awesome for things like web development, scripting, and embedded customization engines for bigger applications.
2. IMO, Ruby is more sought after for its web frameworks, scripting/automation (think Rake), and unit testing frameworks than its potential as an embedded language (unlike Python and Lua).
3. John Lam’s open source Ruby extension, RubyCLR, enabled CRuby to use .NET types pretty effectively.  In other words, I can have a Rails application using .NET code on the server-side if necessary.  Or, I could use rspec to unit test my .NET libraries.  Both could be done while leveraging the existing Ruby implementation and .NET Framework.
4. When John Lam started work on IronRuby, RubyCLR was left to a community that let it fall by the wayside.  In the meantime, IronRuby has not been nearly as impressive as IronPython.  There, I said it.

Now, feel free to read the original rant below.

 

Harsh, right?  I think so.  But, it is time I voice my concerns about the Microsoft’s adaption of the Ruby language.  My intent is to put it all out there, and see how the community feels.  At the end of the day, my opinion is my own.  However, the voice of the community could cause change – of my opinion or otherwise.

What’s beef?

Let me start by saying that I am a .NET developer.  I have specialized in Microsoft technologies over my eleven year career thus far.  In addition to being a member of our local .NET user group, TriNUG, I am also a member of the local Ruby user group Raleigh.rb.  I do not speak for these organizations, but I wanted to point out my involvement with both technical communities.

In addition, my background is web-heavy with a few years of desktop development in there as well.  That is to say that Rails was my introduction to the Ruby language.  From the perspective of a web developer that dug Javascript before Prototype, JQuery and MooTools, Rails whet my appetite for more Ruby-like development in my paying job.  I was amongst the early .NET developers that thought, “Wow, it would be great if we could use a language like Ruby with the CLR!”

In my excitement, I went out and learned about great projects like RubyCLR, John Lam’s old Ruby/CLR bridge, and Ruby.NET, the ruby compiler started by Queensland University of Technology. 

Both projects had great merit.  The former allows a developer to call .NET assemblies and use .NET types from Ruby (and vice-versa though painful), while the latter aimed to be a full implementation of the Ruby language atop the CLR.

I think those two projects could have adequately fulfilled my dream.  More on that later.

Back to my beef.  My beef is that Microsoft killed at least one of these projects.

First, they brilliantly (sans sarcasm) hired John Lam, the developer of RubyCLR.  That was an excellent decision on Microsoft’s behalf.  Initially, I hoped John Lam would continue his work on RubyCLR or a RubyCLR-like project with Microsoft’s resources.  Unfortunately, that was not in their plans.  Instead, IronRuby was started and RubyCLR died.

Secondly, the Ruby.NET project went seemingly inactive (though Open Source) after IronRuby started gaining steam.  It now seems to be stuck at version 0.9 which was working with Ruby 1.8.2.

My beef is that these are two projects the .NET community needs.  IronRuby will become more necessary as Microsoft convince us of such.  But, IronRuby is seemingly being developed at the expense of two very good projects.

Why RubyCLR and Ruby.NET over IronRuby?

Let’s talk web.  As a web developer, my opinion is that dynamic languages are better suited for the web than static languages.  In fact, I may be alone in this, I assert Classic ASP with ActiveScripting fits the web development paradigm better than ASP.NET (not including MVC).  My assertion is based on the ability to make a change and instantly review it by refreshing the page.  This rapid feedback cycle is key to making web development most productive.

Fans of ASP.NET and static languages could make a strong argument for performance.  Simply put, dynamic languages do not perform as well as static languages.  However, this point is less poignant when talking about the web.  Dynamic languages are “good enough” for web development.  In fact, bottlenecks in web applications are usually discovered at the point of disk i/o or data access. 

Wouldn’t it be great if we could optimize our disk i/o and data access code with a static language, but use a dynamic language like Ruby for the bulk of our web applications?  Well, RubyCLR enabled that!  If we focus on unidirectional communication be Ruby and .NET – that is Ruby code calling .NET assemblies, we’ll see that RubyCLR is the bees knees!  Imagine doing your web development in Rails while being able to call .NET assemblies for things like disk i/o (I can’t imagine replacing Ruby’s ActiveRecord with a .NET ORM).

On the flipside, Ruby.NET was in the process of enabling developers that know and love Ruby to use the .NET Framework and all its libraries in a statically typed manner.  This means, not only can I call .NET assemblies from Ruby, but I could write .NET assemblies in Ruby.  How awesome is that? (don’t answer)

I believe Microsoft’s most underestimated contribution to developing in Ruby will be easing Rails deployment on IIS.  That is the key piece to the puzzle and the metaphoric “milkshake that would bring all the boys to the yard.”

If you don’t have something nice to say…

I’ll end by saying a few good things about IronRuby and Microsoft.  As a developer that uses Microsoft’s technologies, I continue to believe that Microsoft will (a) make mistakes and adjust to correct them or (b) continue to be an agent of change that brings the rest of us into the light.

With that said, IronRuby, IronPython, and the DLR are bringing capabilities to .NET development that either didn’t exist before or were a pain in the neck to implement.  I haven’t really wrapped my head around doing web development with IronRuby, yet.  I hope the experience will be as pleasant as doing web development with Ruby.  But, the ability to add scripting to a desktop application utilizing IronPython or IronRuby is very nice.

Now, it’s your turn

I can go on and on about this topic.  Those that have had this conversation with me in-person can attest to that.  But, I’m really interested in how the community feels.  What’s up?

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