Martin F. wrote:
I know Bruce moderately, well enough to be pretty damn sure that
monetary motives are well below his radar (for goodness sake he makes
his books available free on the internet, which is more than I’ve ever
had courage to do.) People are very quick to slam other people’s
integrity on the internet. Bruce’s skin has probably thickened in time,
but it still hurts me when it happens to me, so I feel inclined to
defend him. I’ve always had the impression that this kind of thing
happens rarely in the ruby community, I would wish that to be true.
Agreed. Fervently.
Background as follows: my first post on comp.lang.ruby. My first
month using this beautiful language commercially. The first time
I’ve discussed Mr Eckel since meeting him in London c1988 - as
John Haggins of Zortech tried to build interest in his brand new
product, billed the first true C++ compiler in the world.
My love in those days was Smalltalk-80 and its derivatives. But
some things one has to do for money. That motivation is always
there, for all of us, at some level, surely?
I found Bruce’s recent article very helpful, especially his insights
on the sad plight of those who put their hope in “enterprise” Java.
I love the friendly feel of the Ruby community, old-style.
Thanks to Matz, to all Pragmatic persons, to David HH and
many other early cheerleaders, not least Mr Fowler.
What a wonderful thing to experience, to be part of a productive
global community. With everything for free.
Free to do better, in this case, hopefully.
Richard