it change before it isn’t itself? These are questions it’s unlikely
we’ll answer comprehensively in one talk: after all, “essence” is as
tricky a
philosophical concept as there is, and the Ship of Theseus—the ancient
paradox concerning the plank-by-plank rebuilding of a ship, and the
question of when the ship’s identity changes—remains a paradox. Still,
in practical terms, we’ve got some interesting things going on with
regard to Ruby: new implementations, para-implementations,
domain-specific implementations, and, in the face of all this
centrifugal activity, the
centripetal forces of RubySpec and ISO/IEC 30170. Is it going to come
down to speaking of “Rubies,” the way we speak of “LISPs”? Only time
will tell… but meanwhile let’s plunge into the Ruby landscape and
have a look around.