1. Will Green
will@hotgazpacho.org
@hotgazpacho

2.  History
 The DLR
 Why IronRuby?
 The Million Dollar Question
 Rusty Washers
 Getting IronRuby
 Additional Resources

3. Or, how Microsoft learned to stop worrying and love dynamic languages
+ =
Sources:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ruby_logo.png
http://dlr.codeplex.com/
http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/cartoons/pages/phineas-and-ferb.shtml

4.  Compiler that translates Ruby source code
into .NET IL (Intermediate Langauage)
 Ran Ruby code on the .NET CLR (Common
Language Runtime)
 Started by Dr. Wayne Kelly and Prof. John
Gough of the Queensland University of
Technology
 Lost relevance around the beginning of 2008

5.  “A high-performance Ruby to .NET bridge
that allows seamless integration of CLR and
Ruby objects in the same Win32 process.”
 Developed by John Lam and Ceasar Larry
 Runs Ruby code on the .NET Common
Language Runtime
 Abandoned when John Lam was hired by
Microsoft

6.  “IronRuby is a Open Source implementation of
the Ruby programming language for .NET,
heavily relying on Microsoft's Dynamic
Language Runtime”
 Microsoft’s implementation of Ruby
 John Lam hired as Program Manager
 Current Program Manager (also for IronPython) is
Jimmy Schementi
 First previewed at MIX 2007
 Version 1.0 released at MIX 2010
 Targets Ruby 1.8.6

7. You got your dynamic in my static!
You got your static in my dynamic!
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25517107@N00/2950954830/

8.  A common runtime for dynamic languages on
the .NET platform
 Provides interop among various dynamic
languages
 Use libraries from multiple languages simultaneously
 Allows hosting dynamic languages in static .NET
assemblies
 New .NET static type: dynamic

9.  IronRuby
 IronPython
 IronScheme
 ClojureCLR
 IronJS (JavaScript)
 Nua (Lua)
JS

10. What is it good for?

11.  Sometimes, you just ‘gotta interop with
“Enterprise” systems written in .NET
 SOAP and COM
 WCF (Windows Communication Foundation)
services
 Access to the BCL == Base Class Library
 Very extensive, rich set of standard libraries
 IronRuby eases the pain

12.  Standardized Packaging System
 Central Repository for hosting packages
 Allows installation and management of
multiple versions of a package
 Allows distribution of binary packages
targeting a specific platform
 Ruby Gems 1.3.7 includes my patch to recognize
universal-dotnet, universal-dotnet-2.0, and
universal-dotnet-4.0 as platforms

13.  Acceptance Testing
 Cucumber
 Unit Testing, BDD style
 RSpec / Shoulda
 Factories instead of Fixtures
 Factory Girl
 Machinist
 Mocking
 RSpec Mocks
 Caricature
▪ Mock .NET types (death to sealed and internal!)
▪ http://github.com/casualjim/caricature

14.  Believe in Magic!
 http://github.com/thbar/magic
 DSL for creating UIs
 Windows Presentation Foundation
▪ Current hotness for client UI development on Windows
 Silverlight
▪ WPF for the Web
 Windows Forms
▪ Traditional battleship-grey Windows apps
 Think Builder for Windows UIs

15. DEMO

16.  <script type=“text/ruby”></script>
 Requires Silverlight, but you get to do this:

17. DEMO

18. Source: http://777denny.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/what-does-the-bible-say-about-money-take-this-quick-quiz-to-
find-out/

19. YES!

20.  YES!
 IronRuby.Rack
 Rack adapter for IIS (HttpHandler)
 Included in IronRuby source on GitHub
 Needs some tweaks*
 ActiveRecord Adapters
 sqlite3-ironruby
 Ironruby-sqlserver

21. DEMO

22. Where does IronRuby fall short?
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/92709190@N00/230032831

23.  85.94% pass rate
 vs 97.53% for MRI
 Latest statistics at http://ironruby.info/
 Need RubySpec contributions!
 RubySepc helps ALL Ruby implementations!
 http://rubyspec.org/

24.  OpenSSL
 Needs .NET implementation
 Should not be an issue with .NET crypto APIs
 Putting my money where my mouth is
 If someone will write the RubySpec specs for
OpenSSL, I will implement it for IronRuby

25.  IronRuby doesn’t implement the C API
 However, equivalent libraries with .NET code
can be created (and packaged as Gems!)
 eg. iron-term-ansicolor
▪ My lib for color console output on Windows

26.  Cucumber’s parser, Gherkin, is now Ragel
based
 Ragel does not target C# or .NET
 Work-around:
 Ragel does target Java
 IKVM is Java (the langauge) for .NET
 Use IKVM to create a .NET assembly
 Still has some issues

27.  IronRuby does not support FFI
 FFI = Foreign Function Interface
▪ http://wiki.github.com/ffi/ffi/why-use-ffi
 Perhaps could be implemented via p/Invoke?
 Crazy thought, or craziest thought?

28.  Mono == An open source, cross-platform,
implementation of C# and the CLR that is
binary compatible with Microsoft.NET
 Most active contributors to IronRuby are
‘Softies, so running on Mono is not a priority
 However, running on Mono is something the
team would like

29. Give it to me!
Source: http://new.music.yahoo.com/timbaland/albums/give-it-to-me-4-track-single--193920848

30.  Binary Releases on CodePlex
 http://ironruby.codeplex.com/
 Source is synched from MS internal TFS to
Github
 http://github.com/ironruby/ironruby
 Community contributions accepted, in some areas
of the code, via pulls from forks

31. Get Involved in the Dynamic Revolution!
Source: http://www.macwallpapers.eu/wallpaper/1280x960-Freedom-Ernesto-Che-Guevara/

32.  Mailing List:
http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/ironruby-core
 How to Contribute:
http://wiki.github.com/ironruby/ironruby/
 IronRuby web site:
http://ironruby.net/
 Jimmy Schementi’s blog
http://blog.jimmy.schementi.com/
 IronRuby in the Browser:
http://www.rubyinside.com/ironruby-silverlight-
ruby-in-browser-3192.html

33.  “IronRuby Unleashed” by Shay Friedman
(Sams)
 “IronRuby In Action” by Ivan Porto Carrero
(Manning)

34.  Jimmy Schementi (MS) - @jschementi
 James Deville (MS) - @jredville
 Ivan Porto Carrero (MVP) - @casualjim
 Shay Friedman (MVP) - @ironshay
 Michael Letterle (MVP) - @mletterle
 Ben Hall (MVP) - @Ben_Hall
 Thibaut Barrère - @thibaut_barrere
 Mike Moore - @blowmage
http://twitter.com/casualjim/ironruby-community