[MacRuby-devel] The future of MacRuby

Thu Apr 5 16:25:22 PDT 2012

Thanks for the update Matt.

I haven't actually used MacRuby since my last app, although would love to see it for iOS (as well as keeping OS X support). I guess that would get a lot more people interested too, given the success and popularity of the iOS platform. I think most of your other suggestions are spot on too - and it's great to see Evan willing to help guide the project.

Re helping out, I know I mentioned starting a ruby forum before (MetaRuby.com) with a feature to allow any Ruby project to host their forum on it (by means of a dedicated section, with their own moderators etc) but I just haven't got around to it - however I do have a unused forum license that I could use to set up MetaRuby pretty soon, if you guys need somewhere to get together/discuss things/stick important threads etc I'm happy to do it - so long as nobody minds the default forum skin for now - I'll get around to doing a custom skin eventually, just don't have the time for it yet.

I did do a very quick mock up ages ago (although the logo has since changed - it was just to give some of my friends an idea (who were all very keen to see it)) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/azzzz/MR.jpg

Anyway, let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Aston

On 5 Apr 2012, at 23:06, Matt Aimonetti wrote:

> Many of you have been wondering what is going on with the MacRuby project given the lack of up-to-date releases and overall communication.
> I feel we owe you some explanation.
> 
> As a lot of you have noticed, our de-facto project leader Laurent Sansonetti has been M.I.A since October 2011, his last post to this mailing list being
> http://lists.macosforge.org/pipermail/macruby-devel/2011-October/008168.html announcing MacRuby 0.11 really soon.
> His last commit was a change of license back in October: https://github.com/MacRuby/MacRuby/commit/ac2a7a8e678d19e44d3c64a9508a8370d082dca2
> 
> Laurent is fine. As described on his twitter http://twitter.com/lrz and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/sansonetti accounts, Laurent is no longer with Apple and is clearly also no longer directly involved with the MacRuby project on a day-to-day basis.
> Laurent is currently busy with another project and and hopes to someday be able to contribute to the MacRuby project again.
> 
> While no one on this list can speak for Apple, and Apple as a company does not tend to comment on its future plans or intentions, I think it's reasonable to imagine that Apple would be more than happy to have the MacRuby project decide for itself what its destiny is and how to achieve it.  If they did not want the community to be involved or drive such a process, they would not have released MacRuby as open source or created the project infrastructure to facilitate it.   It is time for us to stop looking to Apple to provide guidance, leadership and coding for the project, in other words, and take on those challenges for ourselves!   MacRuby is already very powerful and comparatively stable as a development platform, now it's time for us to take things to the next level.
> 
> I personally think it will finally allow us to communicate and collaborate on the actual process of development as it occurs, rather than the previous practice of simply seeing code appear from some hidden, internal branch which was driven almost exclusively by a single person
> 
> Doing all of this in the open should lead to far more people being interested in the project, not just as users but as developers and leaders.  No one rushes to fill a position that is occupied by someone else, but now we have a vacuum to fill, and that can be a good thing in terms of encouraging more people to step forward.
> 
> Here is how I see things and I would love to hear more about what you guys think.
> MacRuby is a great project, but: 
> the target audience & projects aren't clear
> the target platform (OS X) isn't the one we all really want to target (iOS)
> Cocoa's API is awesome but not user friendly/easy to grasp
> 
> What I'd like to suggest is the following:
> 
> 1. Define clear goals for MacRuby that we can easily evaluate:
> Focus primarily on making MacRuby the tool to use for quickly prototyping OS X and iOS applications.
> Remove dependency on libauto so MacRuby can run post Mountain Lion and on iOS.
> 2. Increase the number of contributors:
> Define areas of contribution:
> implementation itself (mainly requires C, C++ knowledge)
> prototyping focus (templates, wrapper APIs, modules, tools: a full ecosystem aimed at being more productive)
> documentation (getting started, guides, FAQs, wiki, demos, hacker guides)
> support
> empower contributors:
> move the website to github for easier contribution
> better release process and roadmap
> better process to review pull requests & give commit rights
> 3. Improve communication:
> start an active and official chat room (IRC, campfire like or something else)
> open discussions about plans for the project and progress made
> better collaboration with other Ruby implementation teams (Rubinius, JRuby, MagLev and of course Matz/C Ruby)
> 
> Let's not forget that MacRuby is and will remain a free Open Source project and that means we need your help and support. 
> Without you, this project doesn't mean much so please voice your opinion and if you decide to do so, become an active participant to MacRuby's success.
> 
> I would like to thank Apple for their historical support and Laurent for starting this project and all his work so far. Without those contributions, MacRuby would never have existed and the project will more than welcome any future participation by either Apple or Laurent.
> At the same time, I don't think the future of this project can or should rest on the shoulders of a single corporate entity, or that of a single individual.  That does not encourage the kind of broad participation, or the kind of overall longevity (in the form of future generations of contributors) that Open Source projects really need to survive over the long term.
> Finally, I'd like to make clear that I see myself more in a role of a facilitator than a technical leader on the order of what Laurent was. This role has been left vacant for more than 6 months now and needs to be filled by a group of people with greater technical skills than mine. Additional contributors are therefore more than welcome to join the team, and their support will be as much appreciated as it is needed.
>  
> Finally, in addition to the already numerous great MacRuby contributors and soon to become contributors, Evan Phoenix (Rubinius) agreed to act as an advisor for the project.
> 
> So, MacRuby community what do you think?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> - Matt
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