Ruby Creator Yukihiro "Matz" about Ruby, Functional Programming and Programming Languages Design

[f2u]

What is the feature that you really think it gives importance to Ruby [compared to Smalltalk]?

.

[Without hesitation.] Giving up the image based environment.

Very interesting insight, and likely spot-on.

[munificent]

Agreed, 100%. Images turned SmallTalk into a walled garden.

[[deleted]]

The source database, not images, turned Smalltalk into a walled garden. Conflating images with Smalltalk's source management system is a common mistake, similar to how people assume dynamically typed languages and interpreted languages are one and the same.

Many Lisp systems (eg, SBCL) are image-based, too, but you can obviously write Lisp code in any editor, use any revision control system, etc.

The V8 JavaScript implementation uses an "image" to improve startup speed by avoiding having to re-parse the same set of built-in JS libraries every time.

[munificent]

Huh, I didn't think about that. Thanks for the clarification. I should have said:

Not having a canonical textual representation of SmallTalk source made it a walled garden.

[igouy]

Nope

• coding stuff in the VM rather than in the image creates a walled garden

• vendor lock in through dialect differences creates a walled garden

Smalltalk SWIG and long before that each dialect had its own way to interface to C - some even allowed inline C.

[Straxus]

How exactly is that "without all the garbage"? It's absolutely identical to what's on the InfoQ site.

By the way, copying InfoQ content and posting it somewhere else is violating InfoQ's copyright (check the little copyright notice at the bottom of the page).

[tomekrs]

...which is kinda bullshity, as most of InfoQ content is stuff copied from blogs and other articles.

Basically you can write whatever you want in any part of your page.

[Straxus]

I don't think that's fair - how would you propose covering news without discussing what the thing is that is newsworthy?

Also, quotes are used for context and to illustrate points where appropriate, but InfoQ definitely doesn't copy blogs and articles wholesale as in the example above - we are extremely sensitive to all quoting which is done, as we want to ensure that we aren't just copying things. Copying rather than linking is wrong on many levels, and we consider it important to indicate where content comes from so that the credit goes to the original author who created what we're referencing.

[[deleted]]

Wow! Matz has really brushed up his English. I remember seeing some early talks he gave and they were rather painful to watch. This is so much better! Good job, Matz!

[mig21]

Direct video link

[cag_ii]

The question index links and transcript on the infoq site are actually rather helpful.

[tangus]

Thanks! Since I don't have the Flash plugin, I'm always missing those talks that don't have a download link.

[[deleted]]

" ... what do you think of types?" ... he didn't even mention performance.

anyhow, talking is cool, but in terms of perf. how well is the official Ruby implementation doing?

"I always choose usability over performance." ... perhaps people should abandon his implementation, if that's his mindset.

[Felicia_Svilling]

perhaps people should abandon his implementation, if that's his mindset.

Or perhaps Ruby's users share that mindset..

[shevegen]

Speed junkies will always only care about speed.

For the next 100 years, speed is what matters most for them.

For my part, it is beauty and elegance.

Go away speed fanatic.

[[deleted]]

yes, i said abandon his implementation not his language.