Trolling for Attention
Today, I’ve decided to troll for some attention. And since right now the hottest topic in the tech blogosphere seems to be Ruby and its (un)suitability for the capital E enterprise, I’m now going to explain to the heathens what’s wrong with Ruby:
What, no Main?
I’ve worked as an Enterprise Architect since May 2000. I was dismayed, nay, appalled when I learned that Ruby doesn’t have even the most fundamental Enterprise construct:
public static void main(String[] args)
In the immortal words of one James McGovern, “Wouldn’t that make reuse at an enterprise-level somewhat problematic?”
No Inheritance? You’re Kidding Me!
Many people accuse us Enterprise Architects of mostly talking out of our asses. Meaning, we allegedly tend to make brash sweeping statements about technology under study without first spending even five seconds examining it, or god forbid trying to learn it.
Balderdash! I’ve spent many hours examining Ruby, and for the life of me couldn’t find the extend keyword. So if a Ruby class cannot extend another class, then the entire object oriented paradigm is rendered ineffectual. Without inheritance, it would be absolutely impossible to deliver robust, industrial strength enterprise-ready solutions.
Where’s Rubyc?
OK, so I went off and created my first Ruby program (HelloWorld.ruby). I’ve saved it in my work directory, and then tried to compile it. Here is what I’ve received in response:
What gives? Is this what you call ‘enterprise-ready’? Not being able to compile? I rest my case.
The Final Verdict
Obviously, Ruby is just a toy language, meant for children who would like to write cute little programs about playing with their favorite pet dragons.
Move over Ruby, we have serious enterprise-grade work to do here!