What Excites Me About RubyMotion

clayallsopp.com

12 points·10char··6 comments

To give a curmudgeonly viewpoint, here's what doesn't excite me about RubyMotion: it's for iOS.

As a Rubyist, my entire toolchain, from text editor to interpreter to production server, is open source. I use and create open-source gems. My media is the open web, and many of my users are on open-source browsers. I love this.

So while I'm generally a fan of any clever technology, I'm not keen to see my fellow developers lured into developing on proprietary platforms.

Yes, this is a rather zealous point of view. But as Mr. Ballmer famously reminded us, the success of a platform depends on developers. And I'm rooting for open platforms.

I agree with your viewpoint for different reasons.

I like RubyMotion _because_ it is for iOS. I've developed for Android and iOS and much prefer iOS.

I dislike RubyMotion because the current debug tool chain/error messaging is so weak. I can't jump into the code and fix it. Many times wishing it was open source for that reason.

So for the time being I've shelved usage of RubyMotion, and hope to return to it once the tooling improves.

I really wish there was a ruby motion demo. I'd be fine with all kinds of restrictions (no iPad, simulator-only, whatever), I'd just really like to try it out before I take the leap.

Background: I wrote an iPhone app back in the dark days (2.0 beta, in the store on launch day), so I'm familiar with old iOS stuff. I'd like to pick it back up, but I'd be interested in trying out rubymotion along with modern (ARC, blocks etc.) obj-c.

They have a demo video on their getting started page: http://www.rubymotion.com/getting-started/

I doubt your commitment to RubyMotion.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

I'm glad you couldn't, made me smile.

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