144 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
144 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
---
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layout: project
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title: RubyX, where it started
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---
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<div class="row vspace10">
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<div class="span12 center">
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<h1><span></span></h1>
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<p></p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row ">
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<div class="span1"> </div>
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<div class="span10">
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<p>
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Torsten Ruger started this on 10.04.2014 after having read the Blue Book 20 years earlier.
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The main ideas were:
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</p>
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<p>
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<b>Mikrokernel</b>: The microkernel idea: anything that can be left out, should, puts a nice upper limit
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on things and at the same time provides a great cooking pot for everyone else to try out their ideas.<br/>
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Given gems and bundler this also seems an obvious choice. I really hope to see things i hadn't even thought of.
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<br/>
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<b>Layers represent an interface, not an implementation</b>:
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It is said that every problem in computing can be solved by adding another layer of indirection. And so
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we have many layers, which, when done right, help us to understand the system. (Read, layers are for us,
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not the computer)
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But implementing each layer comes with added cost, often unneccessary. Layers can and should be collapsed
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in the implementation. Inlining, is a good example of this.
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<br/>
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<b>Empowerment</b>: I like the openness of ruby. Everyone can do what and how they want. And change other
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peoples code in an easy and sensible way. The best ideas survive and even better ones are coming.
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Friendly competition as it were, cooperation, independant improvement all make ruby gems better all the time.<br/>
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But ruby itself has not benefited from this in the same way (ie by ruby developers), because it is not in ruby.
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<br/>
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<b>To get it done</b>: I don't know why this has not been done before, it seems so obvious.
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The Blue Book influence has left me interested in virtual machines and that hasn't gone away for
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so long. So when i bought my raspberry pi and had a real need for speed, the previous ecommerce project
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left me feeling that anything could be done. And so i started.
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<br/>
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row">
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<div class="span12 center">
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<h1><span>Thanks</span></h1>
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<p>This would not have happened without:</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<!-- About Us -->
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<div class="row">
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<div class="tripple">
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<h2 class="center">Smalltalk</h2>
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<p>
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Smalltalk is the mother of OO for me. Adele Goldberg has written down the details of early implementations in the
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Blue Book, which made a great impression on me. Having read it, mri code is quite easy to understand. <br/>
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Unfortunately Smalltalk was too far ahead of it's time and used the image, the implications of which are still
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not understood imho.<br/>
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Additional bad luck struck when, in Steven Jobs great heist of the PARC UI, he did not recognise the value of it's
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implementation language and so pure OO did not get the same boost as the gui. Instead we got difficult c dialects.
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="tripple">
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<h2 class="center">Ruby and Rails</h2>
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<p>
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After years of coding Java, Ruby was a very fresh wind. Smalltalk reborn without the funny syntax or image.
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Instead of the image we now have gems, git and bundler, so code exchange has never been easier.
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</p>
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<p>
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Rails has sort of given Ruby it's purpose and made it grow from a perl like scripting language to a server programming
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environment with all the whistles and bells. Rails maturity and code quality make it not only a joy to use,
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but an excellent source for good ruby practises.
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</p>
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<p>
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="tripple">
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<h2 class="center">Synthesis</h2>
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<p>Synthesis</a> is a microkernel OS written
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in the 80's by Alexia Massalin which not only proves the validity of the microkernel idea, but also
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introduces self modifying code into, of all places, the OS.
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</p>
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<p>
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Alexia has raised questions about the nature of code and ways of programming which are still unresolved.
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I regularly reread the thesis and especially the chapter on
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<a href="http://valerieaurora.org/synthesis/SynthesisOS/ch4.html"> Quajects</a> in the endeavour to understand what
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they are in any higher language terms.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row">
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<div class="span12 center">
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<p>Many other steps on the way that have left their mark:</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row ">
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<div class="span1"> </div>
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<div class="span10">
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<p>
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<b><a href="http://judy.sourceforge.net/">Judy</a></b> has been a major source of inspiration and opened new
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ways of thinking about data structures and indeed coding. It has been the basis of two databases i wrote and together
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with Synthesis redefined the meaning of speed for me.
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</p>
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<p>
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<b><a href="http://metasm.cr0.org/">Metasm</a></b> finally confirmed what i had suspected for a while.
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Namely that you don't need C to generate machine code. Metasm has be been assembling, deassembling and
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compiling for several cpu's since 2007, in 100% ruby.
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A great feat, and the only reason i don't use it is because it is too big (for me to understand).
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</p>
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<p>
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<b><a href="https://github.com/cyndis/as">As</a></b> ended up being the starting point for the assembly layer.
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It was nice and small and produced working ARM code, which is what i wanted, as raspberry is arm.
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<b><a href="https://github.com/seattlerb/wilson"> Wilson</a> </b>got assimilated for similar reasons, ie small and
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no dependencies.
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</p>
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<p>
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<b><a href="http://kschiess.github.io/parslet/">Parslet</a></b> is great, thanks Kasper!
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Parslet makes parsing possible for everyone.
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</p>
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<p>
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<b><a href="http://bundler.io/">Bundler</a></b> just makes you wonder how we managed before.
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Thanks to Yahuda, for starting it and Andre for making it fantastic.
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</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="row">
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<div class="span12 center">
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<p>Lastly, but most importantly there is a siritual side to this too. Actually to anything i have done for at
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least 15 years, and i just mention it <a href="spiritual.html">here</a>, thinking that it won't concern
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most people which is fine. I don't really want to talk about it, but i can't leave it unsaid either.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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