Programming Languages
Keynote: 30 Years of Ruby
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Keynote: 30 Years of Ruby
by Yukihiro "Matz" MatsumotoIn this keynote presentation titled Keynote: 30 Years of Ruby, delivered at RubyConf TH 2023 in Bangkok, Yukihiro 'Matz' Matsumoto reflects on the journey of the Ruby programming language over the past 30 years. The talk covers several key lessons learned during Ruby's development, emphasizing the significance of community, naming, initiative, and motivation in creating a successful programming language.
Key points discussed in the talk include:
- The Origin of Ruby: Ruby was created in 1993 as a personal project out of boredom during discussions about a new project. Matz emphasizes the importance of choosing a good name for programming projects, which he considers one of the best decisions he made.
- Motivation and Initiative: Matz discusses how his passion for programming languages led him to create Ruby, even working on it secretly during tough economic times and a lack of opportunities at his job. He highlights that taking initiative can lead to significant developments.
- Backing Up Work: He shares a personal experience of losing work without backup during a system crash, stressing the importance of maintaining version control and backing up work.
- Community Contributions: The talk underscores the essential role of the Ruby community in its evolution. Matz credits community members for enhancing Ruby, creating tools, libraries, and fostering an environment of collaboration.
- Embracing Change: Matz mentions how Ruby has evolved with changing technologies, like the introduction of JIT compilers, to stay relevant. He also stresses how companies adapt and evolve their services, as seen with Twitter's transition from Ruby.
- Continuous Improvement: The community's commitment to improving Ruby's performance is vital, with goals of significantly enhancing speed and concurrency.
- Community Engagement: Matz emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships within the Rub community, promoting kindness and constructive feedback, and encourages participation in meetups and conferences.
In conclusion, Matz urges the Ruby community to keep moving forward, maintaining engagement, and contributing to enhance Ruby for future generations. The lessons drawn from the history of Ruby can serve as guidance for developers embarking on their programming projects, highlighting the impact of community and collaboration on the success of technology.
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Thank you. As Matz may have introduced me, I started Ruby 30 years ago, in 1993.
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Yes, 30 years.
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Today, I am going to share with you lessons from 30 years of Ruby's history.
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I named Ruby on February 24, 1993.
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At that time, I was discussing a new project with my friend. I was kind of bored and decided to start my pet project.
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I will explain the details later, but I needed to create my own programming language.
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We needed some kind of code name, so I discussed it with my friend. The candidates were Ruby, Corona, and Tish.
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During our discussion, my colleague proposed naming the new language after the gemstone Ruby.
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Luckily, Tish was dropped; if I had made a mistake, we might be attending the Tish conference, which would not have been appealing.
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The remaining candidates were Ruby and Coral.
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I thought about the names, and Ruby sounded more beautiful, more appealing, and shorter.
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Thus, I picked the name Ruby, and I believe it was the greatest choice of my life.
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So, lesson one: choose good names for your projects, companies, services, functions, or variables.
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Naming is important because software lacks a physical entity; it's a virtual construct.
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Software represents concepts, so we need to name them properly.
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We should think in our native languages, whether it's English, Japanese, Thai, or any other language.
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We need to represent important concepts in clear terms or names.
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When starting a new project, choosing a good name is crucial.
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The definition of a good name can vary for different entities.
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For example, Ruby has nothing to do with programming language terms, but its beauty and appeal contributed to the project's success.
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You might name your project something fantastical, like Kaminari or Umami in Japanese.
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Proper naming holds great power. The name can determine the fate of the language, the software, and the project.
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Thus, the lesson here is that naming is extremely important.
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I have often been asked why I created Ruby. Initially, it started as a hobby. In high school, I dreamed of creating my own programming language.
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I began programming at age 15, using Basic, not Visual Basic, but the original Basic.
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My first computer was the size of a pocket computer, and Basic was quite limited.
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It only had global variables—no local variables. All variables had a length of one, meaning I only had 26 global variables in the entire program.
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This limitation was frustrating, and at that point, I thought programming was difficult and challenging.
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However, I soon discovered more powerful programming languages like C, Pascal, Lisp, and Smalltalk.
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Using these advanced languages made programming a lot easier and more enjoyable.
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I became interested in programming languages in general and sought new programming languages and features that assist programmers.
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Then I realized that every programming language has a creator, unlike natural languages that evolve over time.
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It struck me, why can't I create my own programming language?
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At that time, in the early 80s, we didn't have the Internet—only books and magazines supplied information.
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I obtained a textbook for university called 'Compiler,' but it was too advanced for me.
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After entering university, I majored in computer science and learned about various programming languages, algorithms, and how to implement programming languages.
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After graduating, I became a professional programmer, and the internal passion to create Ruby kept me working for it for 30 years.
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So, lesson two: motivation matters. Your drive should come from your motivation.
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In 1983, I began creating Ruby during Japan's post-bubble economy, which led to a serious economic depression.
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I was working as a programmer, but my project got canceled due to the economic climate.
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Fortunately, I wasn't fired but became a maintainer of existing projects.
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New development was prohibited, and I often dealt with customer complaints.
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I would guide them to restart their computers when they faced software issues.
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Due to the boredom of maintaining old projects, I started working secretly on Ruby using company resources.
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As Grace Hopper famously said, 'It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,' so I ventured into creating Ruby without informing my manager.
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Eventually, the company I worked for went bankrupt, so I can safely share this story.
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Lesson three: sometimes you need to take initiative without waiting for permission.
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About 20 years ago, I was working on Ruby and trying to improve performance by inlining C functions in the abstract syntax tree.
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Almost one week into the project, my work was lost due to a system crash.
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Unfortunately, at that time, we didn't have version control systems.
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This experience taught me the importance of version control and backup.
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I kept diaries and logs of my daily work on my PC, but when a hard drive crashed, I lost all of that.
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Thus, lesson four: always keep backups.
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Now, let's talk about Twitter, which was originally developed with Ruby.
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Many famous services, like Twitter, moved away from Ruby.
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Some developers claimed that Ruby was dead because of this.
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However, I believe each service underwent significant changes and adaptations.
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Twitter started as a short blogging service, with significant features added later.
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In the beginning, it was easy to fail and pivot with new ideas.
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Lesson five is to embrace trial and error.
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A robust community is essential for the success of Ruby.
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Ruby is open-source and depends greatly on community efforts.
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If there were no community members, we wouldn't have Ruby today.
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Initially, I wrote Ruby, but over time, community contributions evolved and improved it.
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Ruby on Rails became a major part of Ruby's identity.
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The community has created numerous supporting tools, libraries, and gems.
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The success of Ruby is attributed not only to the language but to its supportive community.
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Thought leaders and innovators from the community created many Ruby tools.
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Many gems assist with common tasks, allowing developers to create efficiently.
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We organize conferences globally to foster community engagement.
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We began with RubyConf in 2001 with just 37 attendees, but now we have grown significantly.
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Ruby's community consists of individuals who share a mutual interest in the language.
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There are no formal memberships, and anyone can contribute.
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Every community member has different reasons for joining.
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We require a nurturing environment to prevent community members from leaving.
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Open-source projects may languish if the community fails to flourish.
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If we stop engaging and providing value, we risk projects becoming abandoned.
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Keep moving forward; communities must keep swimming to survive.
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In the past, we've accomplished great things as a community, continuously improving.
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Ruby's performance has also improved dramatically since the earlier versions.
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Ruby 3 aims to be three times faster than Ruby 2 in various benchmarks.
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Technological advancements and community-driven improvements have greatly enhanced Ruby.
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The introduction of JIT compilers has brought further enhancements to performance.
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Ruby's speed is vital for real-world applications, which has significantly improved.
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As a community, we strive to enhance productivity through collaboration and contributions.
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We are working on improvements for concurrency in Ruby.
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We aim to provide better tools and libraries that enhance development.
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It's essential to keep developers engaged and to promote Ruby in the workplace.
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As more people use Ruby professionally, they contribute back to the community.
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Volunteering and organizing meetups is essential for nurturing connections.
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We emphasize kindness within the Ruby community; a positive attitude is key.
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When providing feedback, it’s important to be constructive.
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I encourage everyone to attend conferences, form friendships, and collaborate.
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Remember, every small input can lead to significant change.
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Together, we will keep forward momentum; the core team will create continuous value.
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Thank you.
