[MacRuby-devel] A Future for MacRuby

[Dan Farrand]

It's been great to read everyones thoughts on this subject.  It's helped me get a better perspective on what MacRuby is.

I am a Ruby newbie but have been working on Mac for a long time, mostly in the "business applications" space.

Here is my 2 cents.  I am very much a Mac fanboy and consequently an Apple advocate.  However, I think Apple's weak spot going into the future is Objective-C.  I view this issue as somewhat separate from Cocoa, but maybe folks who know more than I do will tell me that they are fused together.  

I don't actually find it pleasurable to code in Objective-C.  There just seems to be too much abstraction, syntax and long rambling class/method names cluttering up the the editor window.  I do find Ruby enjoyable to code in.  

I view Ruby as a way for Apple to provide more accessible pathways for would-be Mac and iOS developers.  I had thought this might even have been Apple's idea in supporting MacRuby,   But after hearing from everyone,  I'm guessing it's more of a "lets keep our options open" attitude and Apples support is real but speculative.  

There is certainly no indication that Apple sees a problem with it's dependence on Objective-C.  The Steve Jobs Apple probably sees it as a big plus because they effectively control the language.

If nothing else, it looks like MacRuby is a fun way to poke around inside Cocoa so it's worth pushing into.

thanks everyone for taking the time to respond to my original query.