Better Endeavor Blog: RubyConf 2007

The 2007 RubyConf was a couple of weeks ago (Nov 2nd-4th) in Charlotte, NC . I attended with a few of my Intridea colleagues – Pradeep, Michael, and Jeremy. So this post is not all that timely, and I imagine anything worthwhile to say about RubyConf 2007 has already been blogged about to death. Not only that, but I was part of a panel at last week’s DCRUG meeting, where we discussed RubyConf, so I have already probably talked the topic to death. And yet, still I write… must be the egotist in me that assumes my 2 subscribers want, nay – need, to know there weren’t enough men’s restrooms, or there should have been more coffee on the last day. Here on the Better Endeavor Blog, we get into the meat of things and tell you what’s really important.

Some Persistent Themes of RubyConf 2007

1. Ruby != Rails
There was an obvious push by the organizers of RubyConf to differentiate Ruby from Rails. Rails is a runaway success and has helped propel Ruby into prominence, and yet there were no exclusively Rails-focused talks, and most only mentioned Rails as an ancillary portion of the presentation. That said, a majority of the attendees were doing Rails development as opposed to non-Rails Ruby development.

2. RubyConf != RailsConf
The organizers also seemed to want to differentiate their conference from RailsConf. From the small size to the (at times) disorganized schedule, RubyConf had a more “folksy” feeling (to quote Chad Fowler).

3. Alternate Ruby VMs
The second morning was devoted to alternate Ruby VMS with people from IronRuby, jRuby, and Rubinius each talking for an hour about their implementation.

The Rubinius talk was by far the most interesting – instead of talking about high-level technical details, Evan Phoenix (the main Rubinius dude) compared lines of Ruby code in each of the projects. IronRuby, jRuby, and Matz’s Ruby each had less than 100 lines of Ruby code, with thousands of lines of other stuff (C#, Java, or C). Rubinius, on the other hand, was approximately half Ruby and half C, and steadily tilting more towards the Ruby side. His point was that a Ruby programmer can more easily contribute to a project developed in their language of choice.

4. Testing
So in case you haven’t heard – all the cool kids test, and so should you. And most of the super-cool kids are using Rspec for testing. I’m neither cool nor super-cool yet, but I’m working on that. One point that was given several times in the conference was that testing matters much more than which testing framework you choose.

Quibbling, Grousing, Bellyaching, and Nitpicking
(or Suggestions for Next Year’s RubyConf)

The RubyConf website was oddly lacking in details – especially for a technical conference. Most conspicuous in its absence was the address of the hotel where the conference was being held. I would have hoped for location information, abstracts, sponsorship opportunities, and additional information. Maybe next year a conference wiki so intrepid conference goers could provide some of the content?
The usual slow wifi complaints – this doesn’t need to be explained.
There were some very unfortunate room assignments – one time slot in particular was standing-room-only in the smaller room, while the large room was sparsely (at best) attended. I definitely understand it can be difficult to predetermine attendance, and this was the first year with multiple tracks. Perhaps a survey or recommending the use of a conference attendee scheduling tool?
Refreshments – on the last day there were no refreshments available after lunch. Since the close-by Starbucks was closed, that left a bunch of programmers with nothing to drink, and worse yet, no caffeine!
Breaks – I really could have used more of a mid-morning and mid-afternoon break. Most of the talks were good, but sitting and listening for hours on end is tiring!

Praises, Accolades, Commendations, and Flattery
(or I Really Did Have a Great Time)

Despite the lack of Rails topics, there were a wide-range of talk topics. There were talks on everything from Optimizing C Extensions, to What Makes Beautiful Code?, to VOIP, to Rspec.
Good city – from the bits of it that I saw, Charlotte is a really nice city. There was little traffic, the streets were clean, and there seemed like a lot to do.
Good venue – the 3 ballrooms we used at the Omni worked well for all-in-one-room talks in the mornings, and two different talks in the afternoons. There were also many hotels and restaurants within walking distance.
Great people – I meet a lot of kickass people at RubyConf, and especially had a great time hanging out and tossing ideas back and forth with my new Intridea co-workers.

Matz

Matz ( for the unwashed masses – Yukihiro Matsumoto, the creator and chief designer of Ruby ) was a good sport and agreed to have a photo take with me and my Intridea peeps. Thanks (for the photo, and more importantly for Ruby)!