Rubinius specification suite (RubySpec), most comprehensive definition of the Ruby programming language, critical to reaching milestone
RAILSCONF, PORTLAND, OR (May 29, 2008) – Engine Yard, provider of the leading Ruby and Rails deployment platform, today announced a preview of Rubinius, which now runs Ruby on Rails. This achievement marks a critical milestone toward delivering a fully compatible Ruby implementation. Engine Yard sponsors the Rubinius open source project, which is focused on creating a next-generation implementation of the Ruby programming language.
“This effort underscores the work our committers have put into the specification suite and Rubinius itself,” said Evan Phoenix, founder of the Rubinius project and an engineer at Engine Yard. “The ability to run Rails is one of the last signposts on the road to compatibility. In the long term, it is Rubinius’ goal to give developers improved speed of the environment, better integration features, and the ability to contribute much more to the future of Ruby.”
Reaching this point has been challenging for the Rubinius team, largely due to the sheer size of the Rails code base, which uses almost every feature of Ruby. To ensure that Rails would run on Rubinius, Phoenix’s team had to look closely at their own code base so nothing would ‘break’ in the process. Achieving compatibility was a direct result of the work they’ve put into RubySpec, the Rubinius specification suite that defines, for the first time, a standard Ruby language against which future implementations can be tested.
Phoenix further commented: “We would never have gotten this far without Rubinius’ RubySpec. It's provided an amazing compass with which to steer the ship. Now that the specs are getting more a life of their own, we’ll see them become even more complete and help solidify not just Ruby implementations, but also further enhance the reputation of Ruby.”
Rubinius was founded with the goal of creating a robust, high-performance runtime for Ruby code. The test suite corrects a missing piece of the language—a specification that would ensure that Ruby remains backwards compatible. Rubinius plans to release its 1.0 version in summer 2008, which will be fully compatible with existing Ruby implementations. The Rubinius preview release can be downloaded today at http://rubini.us/releases/
Engine Yard is showcasing the Rubinius preview and a full Engine Yard cluster this week at RailsConf Phoenix will lead a discussion, “Rubinius – Under the Hood and Behind the Curtain” on Friday, May 30 at 2:50 p.m. that covers the power and unique features in Rubinius.
About Engine Yard
Engine Yard provides the platform and expert support for deploying Ruby and Rails applications quickly and easily, giving customers the peace of mind and stability needed for building sites and applications on demand. Engine Yard has a track record of hiring expert talent and fostering open source innovation, including stewardship of the Rubinius and Merb projects. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., Engine Yard was founded in 2006 and is backed by Benchmark Capital. Visit http://engineyard.com
Contacts
Page One PR for Engine Yard Chantal Yang 650-565-9800 x752 engineyard@pageonepr.com
