RE: [Rails] Gutted!

rubyonrails-talk
1

Dot Dot wrote:

We just lost our bid to develop in Ruby on Rails and have been told to go back to Java. ... does anyone have any comforting words / cliches?

Hopefully this is comforting: Sun has just hired the JRuby team to work full time on JRuby. This makes Ruby the first official dynamic language supported by Sun on the JVM.

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/09/07/JRuby-guys

In the above Tim Bray talks about making JRuby on Rails a compelling option.

- Mark.

2

Didn't "groovy" beat Ruby in that regard? Or is it not "supported" beyond getting a JSR?

3

> Hopefully this is comforting: Sun has just hired the JRuby team to > work full time on JRuby. This makes Ruby the first official dynamic > language supported by Sun on the JVM.

Didn't "groovy" beat Ruby in that regard? Or is it not "supported" beyond getting a JSR?

That's correct; Ruby is the first that is financially supported by Sun. JSRs are approved by the JCP Executive Committee, not Sun directly. I, too, wonder what that means for Groovy. While it may not be Groovy's death knell, it is certainly at least a hedged bet and may in fact be a vote of no-confidence in Groovy. Time will tell.

It's funny that the Groovy FAQ answer for "What is Groovy?" states, "Think of it as a Ruby or Python like language that is tightly integrated with the Java platform - allowing you the same powerful and concise coding syntax as Ruby or Pyton [sic] but allowing you to stay on the JVM..."

Once JRuby reaches 1.0 (a Sun goal) will there be any need for Groovy?

- Mark.

4

Does this mean that Rails would also run on JVM, or just Ruby?

5

JRuby on Rails already works for simple apps, and we're improving compatibility day-by-day. There are some quirky interpreter issues remaining to be fixed and our poor marshalling support prevents using anything other than the memory_store for session right now, but other than that things work pretty well and Rails is pretty snappy and responsive.

I'll be demoing a few Rails apps running under JRuby next week at RailsConf Europe, and talking about where we stand and where we're going...especially in light of the Sun announcement.

And yes, I lurk here watching for threads with the words "Java" or "JRuby" in them :slight_smile: Feel free to join the JRuby lists or ask me questions offline as well.

6

zer0halo wrote:

     > > Hopefully this is comforting: Sun has just hired the JRuby team to      > > work full time on JRuby. This makes Ruby the first official dynamic      > > language supported by Sun on the JVM.

Does this mean that Rails would also run on JVM, or just Ruby?

Hi,

Due to recent improvements in JRuby, Rails already runs mostly in JRuby. I've added mostly to the sentence since there are a few things that isn't working yet, and performance will need to be improved. But Charles Nutter and Thomas Enebo actually showcased a working JRuby on Rails at JavaOne in May this year.

7

Yes, it does. In fact, JRuby already runs Rails (mostly)…

Jake

8

I think JRuby runs rails on a JVM /now/.