On 7/29/07, Ola Bini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi, > > > I wrote a blog post about it, and got quite many replies. Almost all of > them very positive about going to 5, but there were a few that > represents my gut feel about it. Take this for example, from Jesper: > I think for a lot of users one of the most compelling aspects of JRuby > is it's ability to sneak Ruby into the enterprise. If you decide to > ditch 1.4, many enterprises will not be able to run JRuby (and Rails) on > their existing infrastructure - and these guys *don't* just upgrade. > Besides from Websphere 6 and Weblogic 9 also Oracle Application Server > 10g is using 1.4.2. > For now, the cutting edge shops are running CRuby/Mongrel and in the > enterprise shops we can sneak in a little magic with JRuby. So for now, > please stay on 1.4.
A computer-language implementation is fundamentally a low-level enabling technology. Its primary audience is developers and other engineering types. It's true that many of these people who work in enterprises have in the backs of their minds goals like "sneaking Ruby in." But why would they have such non-technical goals like that in mind? Primarily because Ruby has *technical* benefits that they'd like to take advantage of. So the key drivers in the target market for the JRuby initiative are all technical in nature. *Always activate the key market drivers.* Make a product that is technically the best possible. On this basis, the Java 4-vs-5 question becomes: can we get benefits that will excite our target market by going to 5? Now at this point, Ola, you've segmented the target market in an important and interesting way: there are the developers who will eventually *use* JRuby, and those who will *contribute* to JRuby. For the latter segment, the benefits of 5 are immediate and compelling. Are they for the former? Answer this question first, and then ask how important these developers are to the success of the project. My gut feeling is that they are *very* important, because getting a lot of satisfied, grateful users is the key to being happy that you worked on an open source project. And by the way, even a small improvement in performance is a compelling technical benefit, given that the major rap against Ruby is slow performance. What about infiltrating the enterprise through the backdoor? Look at Java itself in this regard. It's true that Java benefited greatly from Sun's corporate PR effort. Even so, it faced the same barriers to enterprise adoption that Ruby does now. Even with Jruby as the vehicle, it seems reasonable to assume that success (defined as a reasonably large penetration of Ruby in enterprise shops) will take several years of unflaggingly devoted advocacy to achieve. Let's not be afraid to do this work! (J)Ruby will never be brought into enterprises by IT managers. It will be brought in by programmers. Make the programmers happy and (though it will take longer) they will make the project happy.
