[LRUG] Convincing a bank to use Ruby

[Ben Gimpert]

One specific technique with which I've had some success is to migrate
shell scripts away from bash/tcsh/sh and into Ruby.  Pointy Hair's don't
really care about the scripts that do release deployment, monitoring,
and automated builds, anyway.  And once you've got *something* written
in Ruby, the development team will start to realize how much better a
proper 4GL language is.  This was my personal foot in the door for using
Ruby at my day job -- another bank, as it happens.

Another good technique -- assuming the preferred deployment environment
is Java atop *nix -- is exploiting process control capabilities:  Java
sucks (in general), but it especially sucks at process control.  I'm
talking about tracking PID's, resource monitoring (disk space, memory),
etc.  It's not a stretch to tell Pointy Hair that such process control
can only be done in a language closer to command line, and since in 2006
we don't want to write more craptastic shell scripts, that only leaves
(4GL) languages like Ruby and Python.

A classic but guerilla technique is the "quick prototype:"  Code your
first draft of the next BIF (Big Important Feature) in Ruby.  To the
Pointy Hair, justify doing this quick prototype with hip blather about
XP, Agile, unit testing, blah blah.  Once its done, ask the Pointy Hair
if a rewrite into Java (or whatever) should really be prioritized...
This technique assumes you're sole developer on the BIF, which is a
big assumption.

		Good luck,
		Ben



On Fri, Mar 17, 2006 at 07:03:05AM +0000, Tiest Vilee wrote:
> I've just started at a bank and am hoping to help some fellow Rubyists
> convince said bank to allow me to use Ruby.
> 
> What arguments do you think I should use?  Preferably ones that can be
> backed up (I'll develop 10x faster doesn't really cut it...)