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All right, we're doing it live. I'm Steven Baker. About 20 years ago, I created RSpec, and I've apologized already for it. I want to talk about where it came from; there's a bit of history there, and it's been quite a journey.
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So, let's start talking about ancient history because to know where these things come from, you kind of need to know where I come from.
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My first piece of software that I ever wrote was a hockey trivia game on Commodore 64 BASIC and then QBasic. It would ask you questions like, 'Who's the best hockey player ever?' and of course, the answer was Wayne Gretzky.
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That's when I got my first bug report because my dad played the game and he answered Bobby Orr. And he wasn't wrong. So, I had to add that feature to my hockey trivia game, and it grew and grew.
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I couldn't add features without introducing bugs, and I didn't know what the hell I was doing; I was seven years old.
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I became obsessed with how real programmers did this. How do people who do this for a living actually produce quality software? It turns out, most of them don't, including myself.
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But I became consumed by the idea of quality and where these things come from. A few years later, when I was around 14 years old, cable internet began to come to the part of Canada where I lived.
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They would bring you a cable modem, a CD with the drivers, and a branded web browser. You'd get Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and the throbber would be branded for the cable company.
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When they came to my house to install cable internet, I was working at the cable company at the time, doing sales as a 14-year-old.
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They gave me a really old version of Netscape Navigator, and I was offended because this was during the Browser Wars, when we were getting new versions of browsers all the time.
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So, they gave me this outdated version, and I thought, 'This is stupid. Why don’t you just use the fast internet to download my web browser?'
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So, I cracked open Visual Basic and Visual C++, and I wrote a package manager that would install the cable internet drivers.
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Then, it would use the fast cable internet to download your web browser and install the cable company's logo into it. I thought it was really cool.
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I showed my boss, and I said, 'Hey, look, it fits on a floppy disk!' He asked me how much it cost to make CDs, and I said I didn’t know.
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He said, 'A lot! Please come to the office.' So, I got on the bus, took a box of floppy disks with my source code, and printed out all the documentation I wrote.
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I was finally going to meet a real programmer who would tell me all the things I did wrong and how to do it better. I was eager to learn.
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I went to a meeting in a downtown office with about five or six executives from the cable company, and I said, 'Hey, I did this thing, and it fits on a floppy disk.'
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They asked how much money I wanted, and I said, 'I don't know, I just wanted to meet a real programmer, and I really want a new computer.'
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So, they gave me $1,000. I was officially a real programmer, and it was the first time I was exploited.
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So then, on the internet, nobody knows you're a 14-year-old boy. They'd better not.
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This meant I could find work online, and I have been working in this industry since I was 14, which is now 26 years.
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I became obsessed with quality and how to improve our practices. I was also involved in free software, and at one point, I was the youngest Debian developer.
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I started off as a Stallman-loving free software hippie. Yes, I use a Mac, so I'm complicated.
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My first real job, where I didn’t work from home, was in economic development. Economic development is what we do in many communities in Canada.
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If a large industry leaves, the government puts in agencies to increase economic activity.
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When I was 18 years old, I became the local tech expert for the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia.
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I helped businesses start, including software companies. Whenever someone needed assistance hiring, they came to me, an 18-year-old punk kid.
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I realized that many of those companies needed help with quality, and I was studying that.
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So, I started teaching test-driven development (TDD), which was quite new at the time.
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I learned about extreme programming, and I came across a paper called ‘XP for One’. I can't find it now, but it had a great impact on my learning.
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As I was working at the Economic Development Authority, I was teaching these classes and facing some resistance.
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People would say, 'You can't test something that doesn't exist.' I thought, 'Okay, you're right; the language we use to discuss TDD doesn’t truly reflect what we're doing.'
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TDD is more of a design activity. In my research, I discovered the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which states that language influences the way we think.
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I decided that I would change the terminology around TDD to help correct misunderstandings.
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I wasn't the only one thinking about this; Dan North and Liz Keogh were also discussing Behavior-Driven Development (BDD), which was closely related to customers.
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As I was teaching these classes, I created something called Describer.rb.
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Ruby is wonderful for meta-programming, so I aliased ‘test unit’ to ‘test case’ and adjusted the test case suite.
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This allowed it to find methods that started with ‘should’ instead of ‘test’. This was my first real experiment.
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Unfortunately, this approach led to some maintenance nightmares, especially in early Rails projects.
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At the end of my class, I explained that Describer.rb was just a teaching tool to illustrate a point. I emphasized that we traditionally used the xUnit pattern for testing.
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I thought I'd never hear about Describer.rb again, but I received surprising feedback from a well-known figure who had noticed it.
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At some Agile conference presentation, someone who took my class explained how they had learned TDD using my tool.
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He reached out to me, leading to further conversations about the project. I swiftly realized my creation had gained traction.
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After renaming the project to RSpec, I had the chance to share my ideas and improve the tool's usability.
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Everyone was excited about improving TDD practices, and as the Ruby community grew, so did our discussions.
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In these early days, a lot of people embraced the idea of BDD that I was advocating through Describer.rb.
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During these sessions, I loved discussing how we could shift our paradigm around testing and make it more intuitive.
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People kept asking questions, and I was excited to share my insights. I began speaking at conferences, which was overwhelming at first.
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I learned that teaching was the best way to reinforce my own understanding. I never expected my work would help shape aspects of the greater Ruby community.
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However, I soon found out that not everyone would appreciate the changes we were trying to implement.
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Despite the initial challenges, the community reaction and the excitement around RSpec continued to grow.
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I was fortunate to connect with some of my heroes, learn from their experiences, and shape my own path.
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At RubyConf 2005, RSpec had its coming out party but I didn’t realize how significant it would be at the time.
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My motivation was simple: to share knowledge and help others realize the value of TDD and the tools we create.
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As I returned to later conferences, I realized how many people hadn’t used the tool yet, but were eager to learn.
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There was a lot of work ahead, but the community embraced the idea of quality and continuous improvement.
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It's heartening to see that many people created amazing projects using RSpec and embraced the concepts further.
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Advancements continued with various discussions around how to improve testing for complex applications.
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As our tools evolved, the focus shifted to collaboration and making programming more accessible.
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I cultivated relationships across the community that encouraged growth. We all understood the importance of knowledge sharing.
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One day someone asked a critical question: 'What does it mean to do TDD effectively?' It sparked a long discussion.
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We agreed that our language could be reshaped to better reflect the practices we all aspired to, and that resonated strongly.
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I was fortunate to have people believing in the journey RSpec represented, paving the way for our shared vision of better development practices.
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In hindsight, the successes we encountered were not solely about RSpec; they embodied the growth of a vibrant community.
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Reflecting on my experiences made me grateful for every moment where we created meaningful dialogue about quality.
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Interaction with many like-minded individuals opened doors I never thought possible, allowing for original ideas and new routes.
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I couldn't have anticipated that our work would inspire others to push boundaries, and this continues to drive me today.
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I believe our community thrives on collaboration, and the insights gained feed our progress together.
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In that spirit, I want to encourage everyone to actively share thoughts and ideas, to envision a brighter future.
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As we enhance our approaches to coding and testing, the dedication each of us shows will undoubtedly yield transformative results.
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I'm excited to see how our contributions accumulate and how they can redefine development practices.
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Please don’t shy away from expressing your thoughts; they can play a crucial role in inspiring the next wave of innovation.
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Reach out, create together, and recognize how valuable your voice and experiences are in shaping our journey.
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Even if it means making mistakes along the way, take those steps; they contribute to our shared evolution.
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I look forward to the narratives we will create as we continue moving forward together, reflecting on our collective growth.
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Thank you for your continued passion and commitment to better development practices.
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Now, I'm eager to hear your questions and thoughts as we explore these concepts further.
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Let’s push the boundaries of what’s possible. Thank you.
