SAP is a business software company, in this context, I actually think that Asuman and Murray gave a nice, technical presentation on how Ruby can be used in a business world. I learned some new things like ABAP as a 4GL and it is worth to think about the similarities between ABAP and Ruby, the bridge between front-end and back-end.

I actually enjoyed their presentation. You didn’t hear a single other person talking how Ruby is being used in a business context. SAP did, SAP seriously considers to use Ruby in an Enterprise world and this is very important for the success of a programming language. Great programming languages failed in the past, not because they were bad, the industry didn’t pick it up. The industry didn’t know how to use it. Mat and others from the core team are seriously pushing that Ruby gets picked up by industry folks.

With Ruby at the moment, I’m glad that companies like SAP is using it, otherwise, it feels like a get together of a bunch of nerdy graduate students who just like playing around. % years later, you move on to a new hype.

I talked to IBM and SUN folks, but didn’t really understand what they are doing.

Leo