M C wrote:
Warning: This is my personal opinion so be prepared to possibly disagree :-)
As a consultant I do work ranging from Microsoft .NET, Java to
Ruby/Rails so I get lots of impressions of what is good/bad in all worlds.
One of the (few :-)) great things of the Microsoft platform is how
integrated and singular everything is. F.ex. Visual studio has
everything you need in one product out of the box. Compare this with
java world where users may have to chose between 50 different
frameworks/libraries followed by more or less extensive configuration
since the different pieces are not integrated. In particular for THE
java IDE, eclipse, before the product is really useful, the user has to
know to go to update the product with extensions for their particular
needs as the standard download only comes with basic features which are
likely to suit only a few.
Let's not repeat Java's mistake of non-integration in Ruby/JRuby. In my
view, it is already getting awfully complicated with all the extensions
and basic addons to JRuby. I say that JDBC, Goldspike, JRuby servlet and
other great basic extras should all be integrated in one integrated
distribution that we can point developers to (in addition you could add
a JRuby-basic download for experts). Besides being easier for ordinary
developers, this would also send a more powerful message about the real
scope of JRuby's Java support!.
I think we should follow Linux's model here, not Microsoft's. For JRuby,
that means keeping the core lean and compact, not adding in every new
feature that comes along. This has caused some other language impls like
Groovy to now require tens of megabytes of dependencies. What we should
continue to do is cultivate these projects separately, as well as
cultivating alternative distributions of JRuby that include some or all
of them.
Not everyone wants a swing builder. Not everyone wants Rails. Not
everyone wants all these extra pieces that aren't required to run Ruby.
So we should not force it on them.
- Charlie
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