Alexey Verkhovsky wrote:
> On 3/31/07, Nasir Khan <rubylearner / gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 1. For fun "scratch the itch" projects. [I belong to this one]

I do that, and a little more. I don't have that many itches to scratch, 
but Ruby made my life a little easier, but I want to, someday, make 
money off my skills. Be it Ruby or application development in general.

> 
> 6. Marginal scripting work inside big companies. (underground/stealth Ruby
>> activity)

I'd say that depends on what "marginal" is. I'm pretty sure most big 
companies (non-specialized in IT) don't really care how a particular job 
is done, as long as it is done fast and reliable.
At least, as long as it is for internal use.

>> - Is this the trend they have seen in their enviornments too?
> 
> No. ThoughtWorks is not a small consultancy, and we have several commercial
> Ruby gigs sized 10 to 20 people. There is also this commercial product:
> http://studios.thoughtworks.com/mingle-project-intelligence. It is written
> in Ruby, too.

So, I'm not too much out of my mind, when I learn Ruby and want to make 
a profit out of the skills I learn. That is good to know. May I cite 
ThoughtWorks Studios when I'm applying for jobs as a reference of "Real 
World Ruby" usage? ;)

> Something like WebSphere (huge clump of expensive closed-sourced 
> middleware)
> - yes, methinks. In my experience, 9 times out of 10, these things create a
> lot more problems than they solve.

Well, I'm doubting that it would be possible to write "real" bloatware 
in Ruby, considering it's tendency to write in a test-driven and agile 
manner. On the other hand, I've never seen a Ruby project of such a 
dimension.


-- 
Phillip "CynicalRyan" Gawlowski
http://cynicalryan.110mb.com/

Eek! That was supposed to be My Special Law, _MY_ special law, I tell
you!

T/