Ideas for Improving the Ruby Language in 2016

Happy 2016, y’all! similar to several of you (I’m guessing), I continuously feel a way of tabula rasa when the yr. something is possible! It’s a time to form resolutions and goals for the approaching year, a time to suppose however i'm reaching to improve. when writing my 2015 retrospective piece, I had the genius plan of writing a 2016 coming up with piece for Ruby. As i used to be piecing along the items i feel Ruby ought to aim for, i spotted that my opinion on the topic is way too slender. Plus, i'm not associate professional within the vein of some additional well-known Rubyists. i'm Joe Schmoe Rubyist. I work with it daily, I’ve been doing therefore for an extended time, however there ar others that ar way more qualified and still others UN agency produce other points-of-view.

So, I asked the community, hoping to urge an honest illustration of what Rubyists assume 2016 ought to be for the language. Here is what I got back:

tumbleweeds rolling by

Hmph. OK, I thought, I’ll strive another community. sure as shooting Twitter has some opinions. Here’s what I got back:

crickets chirping

Hmph. OK, I thought, third time’s a charm. I bet the SitePoint Ruby report can generate one thing. Here’s what I got back:

sound of wind processing

OK, fine. i assume the question isn’t as attention-grabbing as i assumed. Or, perhaps my fellow Rubyists merely don’t wish to try and do my job on behalf of me. i do know haven't any alternative however to subject you to my thoughts on Ruby in 2016. perhaps my opinions are therefore offensive/inspiring that another thoughts are generated within the comments.

Diversity
Let Pine Tree State be honest here. i'm not one in all those folks that trumpets the shortage of diversity in our trade. I examine it, however I don’t very do something. Diversity is one in all those polarizing subjects that I usually avoid as a result of i'm white and male so I don’t have a haul. I sympathize (as very much like I can) with others, then i buy back to figure. I shake my head at stories of harassment and that i come back to to figure. I pass on a link to a good article on diversity written by somebody UN agency is laid low with it, and that i come back to to figure. I assuage any guilt concerning being born with the white spoon in my mouth by not creating it worse. Then, I Pine Tree Stateet somebody or I scan one thing that tells me i'm a part of the matter. an enormous a part of it. i buy angry and defensive and…get back to figure.

It took Pine Tree State an extended, durable to appreciate the sole issue i actually fathom diversity: I don’t apprehend, nor am i able to perceive, however it affects others. I will say “Wow, that has got to suck,” however I can’t apprehend. As such, telling somebody to simply “work hard” and everything are fine isn't truthful. obtaining upset once some other person gets upset and my mistreatment “Guys” as a general term during a Slack channel isn't truthful. I can’t be in their shoes, therefore I can’t perceive the matter.

That’s nice, Glenn. You explicit  the matter, however what will we tend to do concerning it from the attitude of a programming language?

Well, the short answer is, I don’t apprehend. I went trying round the net and that i may need found some places to start out. instead of paste one,000 links on diversity, i feel I’ll mimic the 5 points from this text on ways for an organization to push diversity.

1. Founders and Leaders, become involved

We all apprehend UN agency the leaders of Ruby ar, therefore I don’t wish to “name names.” perhaps it’s as very little as requiring conferences to possess a Code of Conduct so as to be sanctioned by the “language.” perhaps it’s well-known speakers refusing to talk unless a CoC is in situ. i feel a diversity policy may be one thing Ruby along may produce and maintain. the purpose is, we've got leaders and well-known folks within the language. obtaining these people concerned goes an extended means toward transfer diversity to the front of the category.

2. Collect higher knowledge

In order to enhance in any space, there has to be the way to live results. however will we tend to live improvement in diversity. Again, i feel the conferences ar a good place to start out. produce exit surveys that ar fast and raise queries round the problems. There are not any shortages of individuals that would return up with the queries that the knowledge collected ar significant.

3. Expand Your Network

From what I will tell, a lot of of the explanation that diversity is that the downside that it's comes from chance. Or, maybe, it comes from the shortage of chance. Programming needs some expensive  tools: A pc, web affiliation, books, time, etc. These resources don't seem to be lush for non-English speaking and/or lower incomes youngsters. I specialize in youngsters as a result of most of the coders i do know gained their passion for it as a baby. whereas there ar organizations that provide some choices, i feel the language may promote some additional potentialities. as an example, if the community may produce a program around Ruby that would be administered remotely (think, Google Hangout) it might permit Ruby resources to show this program from anyplace to anyplace. we tend to may even record the “lessons” and build them on the market for transfer. Then, it’s simply a matter of promotion to the colleges that would use it. It’s a concept.

4. assume Deliberately concerning It

Hiring technical resources is difficult. Hiring various technical resources is crazy onerous. At my company, we've got a repository of queries for every language that took an extended time to form. we tend to post our jobs on our web site and thru varied hiring services. All the things most firms do. However, we tend to additionally sponsor when hours programs like Night Shift to open up real-world learning to students et al. that wish to urge additional into digital development. Ruby has to assume deliberately concerning however it will “recruit” additional various coders to its ranks.

5. produce a Culture That Supports Diversity

This one could be a doozy. it's troublesome to form a culture around a language, I think. particularly in today’s polyglot world of secret writing. However, there ar steps which will be taken:

Requiring a Code of Conduct for the language and its events
Issue a policy that has no tolerance for harassment
Exalt those who reach out and build chance for folks to find out Ruby
“Recruit” folks from varied backgrounds to assist produce this policy and culture
That’s it. i feel rising diversity in Ruby could be a huge goal for 2016. i do know I aforementioned it doesn’t have an effect on Pine Tree State, however I do have 3 ladies. I’d like to assume that, if they like better to go down the programming/technology path, the planet that greets them is one in all support and respect.

Improve the Language
Duh. The “frozen string” stuff coming back in two.3 and 3.0 ar samples of coming back enhancements. i prefer Ruby exploring the purposeful landscape for enhancements and additions to the language. this could continue. Also, the concurrency issue hangs over Ruby sort of a spectre. I’ve aforementioned it before and I’ll say it again: MRI desires a much better answer than the GIL. However, i'm additionally not good enough to form that answer, however i do know there ar people out there UN agency ar.

What concerning changes that aren’t already within the pipeline? Ruby has to keep faithful its roots and still keep developers happy, however now? Last year, Adam Hawkins wrote a beautiful post on the “next version” of the Ruby community. it's well thought out and contains several points on however we will amendment our secret writing approach to form higher artifacts. perhaps Ruby ought to scrutinize the tenets therein article and begin crafting the language to support, nay, encourage their adoption. These tenets ar things like “Prefer Simplicity Over Convenience”, “Prefer Smaller Libraries”, and “Minimize and audit your dependencies”. There ar things we should always be doing, however typically Ruby makes it too straightforward to put in writing pretty code or North American natione seventy five gems which will eventually lead us into Dependency Hell.

I would like to see some tools in core that, as an example, inspect my dependencies and tell Pine Tree State once I have too several. pull in one thing like Rubocop and putt the language behind it's another plan. Go has gofmt, that most Go developers can tell you could be a bunce (once you get accustomed it). Finally, I don’t apprehend of any developers that like Monkey fixture. A language-level constraint that creates monkey fixture additional specific and yells at you to allow you to apprehend it’s happening may well be one thing to contemplate. Removing the power to monkey patch is maybe overkill, however it's bitten North American nation all and might completely discourage new Rubyists.

How concerning observing the changes in alternative established languages for ideas? i actually like a lot of of the ES2016 stuff happening within the javascript world. Things like Destructuring Assignment and interior designers ar nice productivity boosts while not obfuscating the language.

There got to be some language geeks out there that have additional and higher language level suggestions. I’d like to hear them.