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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.
