In 2023 I very nearly walked away from Ruby. But after time to think and reflect, I arrived at a plan to make working on Bridgetown “fun” again. Now a new day dawns, and the ecosystem is poised to enter the next stage of this journey.
TL;DR: Bridgetown 2.0 is now under active development! We have a new Community discussion site (you’re here!), based on Lemmy! Stay tuned for additional announcements coming soon of what’s next for the ecosystem! And now, on with the post…
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Really great work. I don’t think you should feel bad about having slowed down for a few months. You needed time to process all that’s happened and mull over a way forward, so I’d say it was time well spent.
Also, as unpleasant as the recent drama has been, it’s forcing a clearer separation between Ruby and Rails, which might be a good thing for Ruby. The community is split in two, but on one side at least projects that are outside the orbit of Rails will have a better chance at having a platform and being heard. That’s my hope, anyway.
I appreciate hearing that Felipe. I agree taking time off can be very helpful as well as therapeutic, but it’s hard to keep the guilty feelings at bay when it’s stuff other folks are depending on.
At any rate, yes, it’ll be interesting to see how the Ruby community evolves from here…some days it feels like a niche within an niche, but that can be a good breeding ground for innovation too.
Large changes are never easy. Large changes that affect the deep parts of a project are no small thing. It sounds like the core team is in alignment and have a fairly clear path forward. Which is kinda the best outcome, clear out cruft and discard things you don’t want to keep, while building out the thing you always wanted.
Honestly, it’s the community of people like you who make me love my work with Ruby! As far as my experience goes, fun (as a superclass of developer happiness :-) is absolutely essential and it’s great to hear you’re plotting a plan to make it fun again. My personal shining example is Hanami 2: First alpha out in 2019 it took nearly five years to get to the current, still not fully finished state. A long wait, but necessary it seems in retrospect: It’s alternatives like Bridgetown, Hanami etc which pave the way to a tangible future, where Ruby is no longer considered synonymous with Rails – WIP, but already worth a big thank you!
where Ruby is no longer considered synonymous with Rails
Thanks svoop! I think that’s a noble goal as well… not that we lack appreciation for all that Rails has done historically to push the Ruby language forward, but clearly a language with only one popular framework is never going to grow past that well-trodden niche.
