Re: [PhillyOnRails] Business Justification for Ruby

[Mat Schaffer <schapht@gmail.com>]

On Aug 6, 2007, at 12:03 PM, Brian McNamara wrote:
> i've recently started a sys admin job where (a) the environment is  
> tightly controlled and (b) ruby is not an approved language.  i  
> would like to go thru the process of recommending ruby as a  
> standard programming language so i can use it for day to day  
> scripting tasks.
>
> has anyone in the phillyonrails community had to go thru something  
> similar?  i can use the arguments of rapid development, clear  
> syntax, and rich standard library, but what other points could i  
> use?  any and all help is greatly appreciated (either on the list  
> or off-line).

You've got a big advantage if it's a sysadmin job.  Namely that a lot  
of sysadmin tasks can be driven from a sysadmin's machine.  That is  
to say capistrano capistrano capistrano.  You can run ruby and  
capistrano on your workstation, and there's no dependency on your  
server environment.

I'm sure your coworkers/company will come around when they see you  
automating tasks to the point where you get work done faster than any  
of your coworkers.  I routinely drop jaws with 'cap shell' around  
here.  Using ruby with minimal impact to your organization will allow  
people to come around of their own accord.  Which is much more  
powerful than any sort of "approved" language from on high.

I'm interested in trying the same tactic with JRuby around here.  But  
haven't gotten there just yet.
-Mat

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