Software Development
The Revolution will not be Tweeted
The Revolution will not be Tweeted
by Rich KilmerIn the talk "The Revolution will not be Tweeted," Rich Kilmer discusses the evolution of Ruby and the Rails framework, emphasizing that although the initial excitement surrounding Rails has diminished, a significant and quiet revolution is ongoing in enterprise development. Key points include:
- Historical Context: Kilmer reminisces about the early days of Ruby in 2001-2002 when it was considered a hobbyist language during the dot-com crash, and how the first RubyConf and subsequent conferences played pivotal roles in the growth of the Ruby community.
- Growth of Rails: The introduction of the Rails framework in 2005 led to an explosive increase in interest, with attendance at RailsConf surging to 1,800 in 2008, indicating widespread adoption among startups.
- Shift to Enterprise: Kilmer highlights a shift wherein Ruby and Rails are increasingly being used in enterprise settings, moving away from the perception that they are solely for startups. He discusses the backlog of applications within enterprises and the transition from outdated systems like Lotus Notes to Rails.
- Key Examples: He provides notable examples, such as an intelligence agency moving 40,000 Lotus Notes applications to Rails and a New Zealand bank transferring 6,000 applications, showcasing the significant scalability and utility of Ruby in complex environments.
- Support for Enterprise Developers: Kilmer stresses the importance of supporting enterprise developers, emphasizing their need for stability, predictability, and control over deployment processes. He argues that understanding their requirements could enhance the development ecosystem.
- Tools for Developers: He proposes that developing better tools, such as Interactive Development Environments (IDEs), can aid average developers in navigating Rails more effectively, thus broadening the base of Ruby on Rails developers.
Kilmer concludes by calling attention to the silent revolution occurring in enterprises that are embracing Ruby and Rails, urging the community to enhance support for these developers and to work towards improving the Rails ecosystem. He emphasizes the importance of collaboration in ensuring the continued success and growth of Ruby and its frameworks in various domains.
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I am Rich Kilmer.
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I'm going to give a talk about the fact that all this obsolete technology actually isn't obsolete, as we discussed earlier.
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Let's move on to the first slide.
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Before most of you were born, sorry for the color here, but this is RubyConf 2002.
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I couldn't find any pictures from RubyConf 2001, but it was about the same size, with around 30 to 40 people attending.
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The important thing about this slide is that you can see Avi right here.
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I think that's him, but it could be Paul Brannon.
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Anyway, we often had confusion about who was who back then.
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In 2001 and 2002, at the first and second Ruby conferences, what was interesting was that Ruby was seen as a hobbyist language.
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Everyone there was a hobbyist. I was actually out of work at the time, so everything seemed like a hobby to me.
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This was during the dot-com crash, and no one would hire me because they thought I wanted their jobs.
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It was really tough to find a programming job, so I picked up Ruby instead.
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My wife thought I was insane for going to a developer conference when I hadn’t worked for eight months.
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I told her I had to go because it was going to be great, and it was in Florida.
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So, I went to this conference, and everyone thought at the time that Ruby's greatest strength would be in testing.
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They believed Ruby would excel at testing other people's applications, especially Java applications.
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The early discussions centered around executable specifications.
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Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt looked at Ruby with the intention of encoding specifications.
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This idea evolved; by 2001, we were already having conversations about acceptance tests.
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It was fascinating to see that we were doing that with Ruby applications, Rails applications, and the like.
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The early years were a bit lean; we didn’t have many sponsors.
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Despite this, Ruby started to make an impact. Fast forward to 2005, when Rails had just been released.
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At that RubyConf, we had about 300 attendees, which was a huge growth from past years.
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It became clear we needed to split the conference into RubyConf and RailsConf.
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In the back of that conference, you can see some of the tech from back then, quite old-school.
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Not many people were using Macs at that time, and it wasn’t until later that DHH had a significant impact on our community.
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The conference was a pivotal moment where hobbyists started turning into professionals.
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At the first RubyConf, I submitted a bid to work as a subcontractor under BBN Technologies.
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BBN helped create the internet and had a DARPA contract for a distributed multi-agent system.
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There was a notable guy working on our project named Ray Tomlinson. Does anyone know what he did?
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He wrote SMTP, the specification for sending emails.
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So getting to work with the person who created email was pretty surreal for me.
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Our project was entirely in Java and involved about a hundred thousand lines of code.
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I got the call at the RubyConf that my bid was accepted.
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We were tasked with building a testing harness for this distributed multi-agent system.
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We also handled systems administration, and we decided to automate everything.
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From early 2002 to 2005, we utilized Ruby to build a test harness, allowing us to run automated tests for our Java system.
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This setup would generate Ruby scripts that would run massive tests, up to a million lines long.
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For a million lines of XML, parsing it in Ruby was impractical, but Ruby handled the large scripts well.
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Each Ruby process could control a cluster of 300 machines effectively.
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In the early days, we had no automation for our multi-agent system, with only a handful of runs.
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By the end of the project, we pulled off around 15 runs a night, showcasing Ruby's capability.
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Those who claim Ruby doesn't scale or work are misinformed.
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Rails started making a significant impact, and I was doing this work early on.
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At the first RailsConf, there were approximately 600 attendees, a significant increase.
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One notable thing from this conference was the overwhelming number of developers in startups.
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Dave Thomas delivered the keynote speech, advocating that all developers deserve to be happy.
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He emphasized the need to support the enterprise, but many developers were resistant to that idea.
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Many argued they didn't care about the enterprise and preferred to focus on their niche.
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As Ruby grew, we saw that RubyConf in 2006 had about 500 attendees.
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The conference in Orlando was impressive.
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RubyConf this year will be a blast, and there are tickets available.
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We're anticipating around 800 attendees, which is quite significant.
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RailsConf in 2008 boasted 1,800 attendees, highlighting Rails's popularity.
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The attendance illustrates the divide between startup developers and those focused on internal applications.
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Having discussions with consultancies revealed a growing focus on enterprise projects.
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Over the years, the number of enterprise projects has increased dramatically.
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There’s a significant need for applications in enterprises, and companies are adopting Ruby on Rails.
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Many organizations have backlogs of applications needing development.
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Balmer noted that there will be more applications written in the next five years than any previous period.
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The backlog in IT at enterprises and SMBs is vast.
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Many organizations are moving away from outdated systems like Cobalt, embracing newer technologies.
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What are the current applications enterprises need? They are primarily departmental applications.
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There’s a marked shift away from building complex enterprise systems to developing simpler applications.
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For example, many organizations have applications in Lotus Notes, and they are porting these to Rails.
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One intelligence agency is moving 40,000 Lotus Notes applications to Rails.
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Another example is a bank in New Zealand that is porting 6,000 Lotus Notes applications to Rails.
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These organizations are automating incredibly crucial applications.
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Companies are moving away from proprietary systems and toward open-source solutions.
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There’s an opportunity for Rails and Ruby to dominate this space.
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I had the opportunity to train USDA developers who built a Rails application.
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They used the Hobo framework on top of Rails and published a 300-page book on its development.
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The USDA's CIO is a strong advocate for Ruby and Rails.
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So, enterprises are increasingly developing Rails applications internally.
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We should ask why it's important for Rails to be embraced by enterprise developers.
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Diverse gene pools foster survival, and we must support this diversity.
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If we ignore the enterprise developers, we risk stagnation.
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Their work is crucial for building applications that serve the business.
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We need to extend support and compassion to enterprise developers.
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They are responsible for building vital applications that enterprises rely on.
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What do enterprise developers need? Their requirements may differ from our expectations.
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Instead of asking for changes to Rails, they need stability and predictability.
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Enterprise developers are looking for control over deployments.
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They want IT to manage deployment processes, not developers.
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IT departments prefer stability and structural oversight.
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Accountability is critical; they need to track who pushed code regarding deployment.
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This level of oversight can be challenging in more fluid environments.
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Talking with teams at MITRE revealed that they had 50 developers focused on Rails applications.
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Despite that, application deployments took four weeks due to bureaucratic processes.
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Enterprise processes are often more about control than about technology.
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Our environments are complex, but Rails can help simplify many aspects.
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Being able to see how a Rails application operates can boost confidence.
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One of the perspectives I hope to share is how we can help enterprise developers do their jobs better.
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Visualizing systems can demystify complex applications.
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If we simplify processes for these developers, they will thrive.
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I believe Interactive Development Environments (IDEs) can really aid average developers.
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An IDE that wraps Rails and makes it more accessible will boost productivity.
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Furthermore, this tool could provide visualization of models, controllers, and views.
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A good IDE would help developers define models and see their connections visually.
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It can promote clarity and simplify their understanding.
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This could open Rails development to a broader base of developers.
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We need to give average developers tools that help them succeed in Rails development.
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Here's where I see an opportunity in the Rails ecosystem.
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Many people are unaware of what is truly happening with enterprise developers.
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They’re not broadcasting their work on Twitter; it’s a hidden revolution.
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Enterprises are increasingly adopting Rails, and we should embrace this.
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With the right support and tools, we can help broaden the reach and impact of Ruby and Rails.
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Let's work together to enhance the Rails ecosystem.
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Thank you, everyone!
