Path of Ruby

I have somewhat decided to contribute to the Ruby programming language as my project for the Open Source course at RPI. With that I have decided to record my path to doing so in the hopes that others may find it useful.

I will be continually updating this post as I make progress, so stay tuned!

Around May 20, 2019

I started learning about Ruby on my own, before learning about the project in Open Source, since I had heard good things about the language and wanted to see if I liked it better than Python. The answer of course was "yes" I do like it much more than Python. It has a lot of niceties and really feels like a lot of thought and care was put into it.

I greatly enjoy the full everything-is-and-object approach instead of Python's half-baked way of doing things. And the syntax is better. I need to dig in some more into using the language but so far I like it.

Started working my way through the Ruby Koans which was a fairly interesting and good way to learn the syntax and subtleties of the language. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn Ruby as a good way to get used to the language.

Jun 07, 2019 - Jun 08, 2019

The start of my journey! Cloned down the Ruby git repo and subscribed to the mailing list as well as started looking through the Ruby issue tracker. I like their general work-flow. While the ruby-core mailing list does have a lot of activity, much more development seems to happen on the issue tracker. An issue is opened and then a patch is made and attached to it.

This page was a good place to get started and it's good that Ruby has it.

Jun 09, 2019

Finished up the Koans today.I liked them and thought it was a great way to learn. I wish more languages had something like this, a practical hands-on way to learn.

Jun 25, 2019

Presented my idea to work on Ruby in the Open Source class and a few other people seemed interested in joining me. So that's good I won't be going this alone.

Also I have realized that the ruby-core mailing list is just spamming updates from the bug-tracker. So it might not be the most useful thing to be subscribed to.

Jul 13, 2019

I started a new little side project in an attempt to learn more Ruby and the Ruby ecosystem: A website where you can view and vote on how good the anime dubs.

It's a relatively simple website but it's a good exercise. When I started I was going to use Ruby on Rails but that was far more complex and powerful than what I needed so I looked into Sinatra and was very impressed! Sinatra uses the DSL features of Ruby to create a really powerful and easy to use system for creating a web backend. It's lightweight but provides exactly the features I needed, and each time I wanted something I found that Sinatra already had it and integrated it nicely.

Jul 26, 2019

Today we had our Interim Presentation to the class. We spoke about all the things we did, which was mostly learning about how Ruby works both as a language and as a piece of software, and the things we want to accomplish. Namely that we all want to get a patch in.

Oh, on that note, since I was feeling motivated and was digging around the bug tracker I found an easy first bug and submitted a patch! So I have officially begun the process of contributing to the Ruby programming language! It's a very simple patch, only 2 lines (diff below) but it's a start!

diff --git a/file.c b/file.cindex 0742c52d66..1e35839903 100644--- a/file.c+++ b/file.c@@ -4686,7 +4686,7 @@ ruby_enc_find_extname(const char *name, long *len, rb_encoding *enc)
 	do name = ++p; while (isdirsep(*p));

     e = 0;
-    while (*p && *p == '.') p++;+    if (*p && *p == '.') p++;    /* Only trim the first leading period */     while (*p) {
 	if (*p == '.' || istrailinggarbage(*p)) {
 #if USE_NTFS
diff --git a/spec/ruby/core/file/extname_spec.rb b/spec/ruby/core/file/extname_spec.rbindex 7632b6adc0..d9fbb9ea3e 100644--- a/spec/ruby/core/file/extname_spec.rb+++ b/spec/ruby/core/file/extname_spec.rb@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@     File.extname("....").should ==  ""
     File.extname(".foo.").should ==  ""
     File.extname("foo.").should ==  ""
+    File.extname("...jpg").should == ".jpg"   end

   it "returns only the last extension of a file with several dots" do

Aug 02, 2019

So since the patch I submitted the patch a week ago I haven't gotten any on the issues page so I set out to the #ruby IRC channel on Freenode and started seeing if I could get someone to review it and hopefully merge it. I got one person to provide some feedback, but no luck getting a hold of anyone who can merge it.

One of the other people that was working on Ruby with me in the Open Source course, Gabe, has also started getting rolling. He found himself an issue that he wants to work on and has started coding away. He has been having issues with compiling all of Ruby though so we'll see if we can get that fixed before moving forward.

Aug 12, 2019

Began more seriously rewriting my old Discord quote bot in Ruby. This bot has a reputation among my friends and they should be glad to have it back. And a few of my friends have expressed interest in helping me out with it so that could be really fun and a good learning experience.

Aug 13, 2019

Progress on the patch front! Someone added a comment to my bug and an additional modified patch to address the equivalent issue in the basename function as well. Gabe also managed to get his patch wrapped up and submitted over here. His patch is much more involved so it took much longer for him to finish it.

Aug 14, 2019

Last day of the summer semester and the last day of the Open Source Software course. That means it's also time for our final presentations. Ours can be found here as a Markdown file.

This has been a fun adventure and has given me more confidence when jumping into large older projects. If I could do it all again though I might pick a different project, to have a different experience. Maybe Thunderbird next time...