[MacRuby-devel] A Future for MacRuby

[Matt Aimonetti]

>
> No one outside of Apple can integrate it with XCode, or allow it on iOS
> devices.


While the XCode part is partly true (due to limited APIs to say the least),
MacRuby doesn't need to be blessed by Apple to run on iOS. Legally, Apple
isn't blocking anything.

I see that as a double edged sword, yes Apple support allowed MacRuby to be
where it is at, but IMHO, it also limits/restricts the project, or at least
Apple's contribution on some aspect that the community is interested in. As
someone mentioned on twitter the other day, some major parts of OS X are
built/using MacRuby such as the PodcastProducer (or whatever the name is).
But I personally prefer my open source project to be a bit
more independent. If you want full Apple support, use Objective-C, if you
are interested in what MacRuby has to offer and are willing to take a
(small) risk, take the leap. Furthermore, I think too many people rely on
the fact that MacRuby is an Apple backed project and therefore don't
contribute/participate to the project, which is quite regrettable.

The future of MacRuby? MacRuby isn't going anywhere, we are having some
technical hosting issues pushing the 0.11 release which should be solved
soon hopefully. 0.11 is hopefully the last release before 1.0.
Once 1.0 will be out, we will be able to focus on the next big things.

As shown in the various email threads and the interesting projects people
are building, MacRuby is solid and fun. The challenge seems to be that the
interest around the OS X app store isn't as big as expected and maybe we
should seriously consider spend some resources on an iOS version?

- Matt



On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 4:25 PM, Jeff Hemmelgarn <jhemmelg at gmail.com> wrote:

> As someone who has been trying to help in my vanishing spare time, the
> actions of Apple with regard to MacRuby are very important to my
> motivation.  No one outside of Apple can integrate it with XCode, or allow
> it on iOS devices.  If these things don't happen, MacRuby will be much less
> than it could be if these things do happen.  So, it would be very good for
> external support of the project to get real indications that Apple is at
> least beneficent toward the project if not directly dedicating resources.
>
> Jeff Hemmelgarn
>
> On Dec 20, 2011, at 3:04 PM, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
>
> > MacRuby is an open source project and, as such, is (and always has been)
> free to seek or employ additional resources entirely on its own; it does
> not need Apple to hand-hold or broker such an arrangement, assuming that
> such was even possible or desirable.
> >
> > While it is also true that Apple has historically put a fair amount of
> energy into MacRuby, playing a significant role in bootstrapping it to the
> (IMO, quite functional) state it is in today, the greater MacRuby community
> should certainly not take this in any way as an indication that it should
> simply wait passively on the sidelines vs taking an active role in
> determining its future.  MacRuby, just as with pretty much every other
> dialect or implementation of Ruby, is not (or at least shouldn't be)
> something driven by a single person or corporation.  Even Matz himself is
> not the sole arbiter of what Ruby is or can become, it being far more of a
> group effort at this point, and MacRuby is no different.  If it were a
> bird, I would say that it's spent a fair amount of time in the nest, its
> wings are fully grown, and it's fully capable of flying by itself at this
> point. :)
> >
> > - Jordan
>
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