Ruby Community
Opening Keynote: Good Change, Bad Change
Opening Keynote: Good Change, Bad Change
by Yukihiro "Matz" MatsumotoThe video features the opening keynote titled "Good Change, Bad Change" delivered by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto during RubyConf 2017. In his address, Matz reflects on the evolution and community dynamics of the Ruby programming language, which he created in 1993. He expresses his gratitude towards the community and addresses concerns about language changes.
Key points discussed include:
- Community and Change: Matz emphasizes the importance of the Ruby community, noting that while some developers have moved on to other languages, many continue to embrace Ruby. He acknowledges the challenges and frustrations that come with implementing changes, particularly those that break existing compatibility.
- Language Evolution: Matz reflects on the maturity of Ruby, discussing its history, including significant versions like Ruby 1.8 and 1.9, and the upcoming Ruby 3, which aims to improve performance significantly. He shares concerns about maintaining backward compatibility while encouraging innovation.
- Good vs. Bad Changes: Matz delineates between 'good changes' that enhance user satisfaction and productivity and 'bad changes' that create additional burdens for users. He asserts the necessity for thoughtful design choices that prioritize user experience over the satisfaction of the designer.
- Performance Goals: Matz shares aspirations for Ruby's performance, seeking improvements year after year while maintaining its simplicity and usability. The targets for Ruby 3 include being three times faster than Ruby 2.
- Future Directions: Looking forward, Matz emphasizes the need for clear communication and community feedback to guide Ruby's trajectory. He highlights various recent improvements in performance, usability, and community inclusivity, such as support for Unicode 10.
In conclusion, Matz advocates for embracing necessary changes while minimizing adverse effects on the community. He believes that with collaborative input and a focus on enhancing the user experience, Ruby can continue to thrive as a beloved programming language. Matz wraps up his keynote by inviting the community to contribute their Ruby memories as they celebrate Ruby's 25th anniversary.
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Hello everyone! Oh hello! AHA, this is Matz. It’s great to see you!
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I would like to ask you some questions, first.
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Thank you! Welcome to RubyConf.
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These are the first seekers.
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No, really, I'm updated.
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Okay, I'll tell you. We're here to recount this as always.
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I have to stop this mess. I’m a little bit concerned about giving a keynote presentation in English.
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So, I wish everyone could speak, but still, those who came before us did an amazing job.
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Yes, there are some coined phrases like...
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A meaningless one that's doubtful, but it's nice.
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And so, we are nice. And then we have discount stickers on some laptops.
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I actually like this phrase because it sounds like a Nina song in Japanese which means able.
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So, there are terms focused on inclusive attitudes within the community.
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That's quite a nice phrase and impressive for me.
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I know I’m not really a nice person inside.
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So, because the phrase about being nice is quite embarrassing to me, I'm kind of stuck.
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You know, I came up with the idea of reform, which came to mind.
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Ruby is nice to be nice here. It is a place that tries to be nice to you.
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It's a You-know-generated shell, so it is a nice place. Unless you locate the source code.
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But, yeah, this year we don’t need excuses. So, be nice.
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Yeah, shake hands with everyone you can, and with the next person too.
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Be nice. Being nice makes you proud.
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Very nice, very nice try!
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Keeping the advice of the community does well for redesigns.
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We are no longer the new kids on the corner.
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We have grown older; Ruby was born in 1993.
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This echoes the definition of the first day of the language.
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For software, it's quite important that a name is significant.
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Software is a virtual entity so a name is the only thing we can grab.
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Hence, I named my language Ruby.
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February 24th, 1993, Wednesday. So, it turned 25 this year.
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That means Ruby has grown older.
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Java projects started in 1993, and Java was released to the public in 1995.
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Ruby was a leap project that was also started in 1993.
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Ruby was released to the public on December 21, 1995.
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So Ruby is as old as Java.
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Recently, new languages emerged, like Swift, Go, Elixir, and many more.
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Some people try new languages or even move on.
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Some claim that Ruby is dead.
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I used to believe that, but I see so many people here—millions of people still using Ruby.
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They’re writing numerous applications all over the world.
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I've attended some conferences that had over a thousand attendees.
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This one is quite big, with around six to eight hundred people here.
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It is fantastic, and Ruby is still alive.
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However, if we make significant changes that break your software, people might scream.
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Language designers often make mistakes. No one is perfect.
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We've tried to fix those mistakes in the past.
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Many languages have made incompatible changes.
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Ruby 1.x had a huge gap between 1.8 and 1.9.
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I don’t regret that decision, but it did create a division.
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Ruby 3 has a compatibility gap; it can sometimes cause huge issues.
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The community has supported us, but some developers create patches.
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We've tried to create better languages, but drastic changes can lead to cancellation.
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For example, the project KGS was canceled due to a lack of community support.
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We don’t have 56; it was canceled, but 57 remains with gradual changes.
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That’s how the development has gone, taking years to get there.
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This is sometimes called the second system syndrome.
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We are not perfect. We have made mistakes.
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We want to eliminate these mistakes, reduce technical debt.
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At some point, we got mad and wanted to throw everything away.
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However, only a few second systems succeed.
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The very few succeed due to deep problems that put burdens on users.
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Ruby should be stable. Ruby is mature. Ruby has grown up.
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To maintain compatibility is vital to avoid migration costs.
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Old users are causing community divisions.
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We had compatibility problems with Ruby 1.8.
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Some also boycotted the new version.
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It was tough; I was shocked.
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I put my effort into creating Ruby 1.3, which was a good version.
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But still, the community refused to adopt the new version.
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Some projects were canceled; people left the community for new languages.
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The open-source community is real; it's a group of people.
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There's no membership initiation in the Ruby community.
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It's non-exclusive; you can use Ruby alongside JavaScript or other languages.
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The membership is non-exclusive, meaning we can't expect strong loyalty.
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In fact, the Ruby community does show loyalty, but we can't force them to stay.
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If something happens or if some new technology looks attractive, people will leave.
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It’s a reality we cannot stop.
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So we need to attract the community.
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We must recognize that making breaking changes may push our members away.
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It's quite difficult to keep our community active amid these changes.
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If we maintain compatibility, it can be boring.
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You will lose interest in migrating technologies.
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It's a contradiction; we want our community active and growing.
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But to keep them engaged while also maintaining stability is a challenge.
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If we keep things stagnant and filthy, people will leave.
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If we initiate progress, breaking changes will upset people.
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No matter what we do, some people will leave.
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So the problem lies in managing changes.
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We like changes, but at the same time, we dislike them.
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So we have to manage it.
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There are good changes and bad changes; bad changes bring frustration.
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For example, changes that make you work harder are often viewed negatively.
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If you don't want to work but are forced to, it leads to upset.
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On the other hand, changes that spark joy and excitement in your workflow are good.
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Good changes enhance performance and productivity.
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A clean language is not a dead language for me, but it is for you.
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You may not care about Ruby being a clean language.
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Making a language simpler can lead to self-destruction from the designer's perspective.
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So, we must forget about self-satisfaction and avoid bad changes.
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This is an important design principle to apply to software.
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Let’s move our focus towards satisfying users.
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Good performance can be considered a good change.
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No one can complain about enhancing performance.
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I never considered Ruby as primarily a first language.
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I focused on making it enjoyable, satisfactory for users.
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My goal is to push the programmer's burden to computers, enabling humans to work less.
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In that sense, language must be less efficient because it has to do more things.
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Ruby is intentionally slower than other languages like Java or C++.
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But we focus on making Ruby faster.
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Every year, Ruby gains speed; on average, 5 to 10% faster.
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We aim to double this year.
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Ruby's improvement has been consistent and measurable.
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Two years ago, in this keynote, I presented the phrase: Ruby 3 by 3.
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Meaning Ruby will be three times faster than Ruby 2.
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At that time, it felt like a dream and I didn’t even believe it would be possible.
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However, we must motivate the community to achieve this goal.
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We have some new technologies in development.
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MRI stands for Matz's Ruby Interpreter (not true for Ruby anymore).
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It includes a JIT compiler facility, making Ruby faster.
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However, Ruby has constraints due to its history, and the past uses affect memory consumption.
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Ruby should run on the smallest possible code items.
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But we can't consume excessive memory to speed it up.
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That’s a constraint; we need Ruby to maintain memory efficiency.
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It must also run on many platforms, maintaining compatibility.
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For instance, we need it to run on various editions of Windows, Mac, and many CPUs.
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These constraints make upgrades and developments challenging.
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This year, we are exposed to various developments.
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Makarov, who developed the new Ruby 3, is doing an incredible job.
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The important aspect of this new interpreter is optimizing code efficiency.
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It utilizes a register-based internal representation, improving performance.
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This new implementation creates fewer instructions, reducing memory traffic.
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While some may complain about this, it is beneficial overall.
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With Ruby 3, we can expect faster speeds without significantly increasing memory usage.
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The low memory usage is crucial, as it allows for smoother operations.
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Adapting our approach to memory can significantly improve Ruby's performance.
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The idea is to keep dependencies to a minimum, maintaining control.
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We should avoid dependence on third-party libraries due to maintainability issues.
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We need to ensure projects are self-sustaining within Ruby.
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The libraries should not also consume excessive memory, as this could lead to bottlenecks.
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The memory usage needs to be as optimized as possible while maintaining functionality.
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Ruby runs on various platforms and needs to adapt to those changes.
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With new technological advancements, we can seamlessly transition these benefits to Ruby.
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We’ve had consistent discussions on how Ruby can evolve to maintain functionality.
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With this level of improvement, we must remember to gauge the community's interest.
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Adding new features is an important aspect of our development process.
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This ensures that we keep Ruby relevant.
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To do this, we need to have clearer communication with the community.
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We need to keep everything simplified while also adding more.
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Recently, we've supported Unicode 10, making Ruby more internationally friendly.
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Then we've included new performance metrics, covering traceability.
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We added better debugging, profiling, and coverage features.
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Enhancing user experience through error messages is also crucial.
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These improvements are necessary for a richer experience in Ruby.
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Maintaining compatibility is key.
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We consistently aim to add functionality without compromising existing features.
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For instance, we introduced classes and methods to increase versatility.
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However, string manipulation became complex, needing new approaches.
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Characters need to represent more than just a set of bytes.
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So, we are focusing on supporting multiple characters extensively.
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Now, we are empowered to process thousands of characters easily.
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With this, it allows Ruby to be even more user-friendly.
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The combination of two code points creates unique identifiers.
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This introduces a new layer of flexibility in programming.
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Combining different attributes enables better character representation.
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Recent Unicode developments are empowering Ruby and its users.
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We are reviewing some of our existing features for improvements.
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Potential changes can invoke mixed feelings; however, it's all for the better.
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Adopting changes must align with community needs.
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Ruby’s design must evolve to cater to the developer community.
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Language design changes have shifted as the community matures.
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As designers, we remain open to suggestions.
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We are here to gather feedback and insights from everyone.
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This input is crucial as we design the next iterations of Ruby.
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To summarize today's discussion: we must continue to welcome changes.
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Maximizing good changes while minimizing disruptions should be our goal.
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Ruby was designed with the programmer in mind, focusing on usability.
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I aimed to create a language that I would enjoy using, and thankfully many others have enjoyed it as well.
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Our users mean a lot to us, and we want to help reduce mistakes shared in the community.
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As we approach Ruby's 20th birthday on February 24th, 2015, we are planning a celebration.
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Although attendance may be limited, we are also considering a virtual event.
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We invite everyone to tweet their memories or inspirations related to Ruby.
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We want to compile these into a digital scrapbook for everyone to view.
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This is just the beginning of our collective journey with Ruby.
