Pat Eyler has interviewed Hal Fulton, Ruby veteran and author of "The Ruby Way", a popular "how to" book for Ruby, focused on telling you what you need to know to get things done, covering advanced OO techniques, GUIs, threads, networking and systems administration. First exposed to Ruby in 1999, Fulton is now a heavyweight in the Ruby community and has worked with Ruby since then. The Ruby Way, originally published in 2000, is getting ready for its second edition and it will cover the latest Ruby features and uses of Ruby, including Ruby on Rails.
In this interview Fulton recalls the lack of Ruby documentation when he took his first steps with Ruby and how he learned Ruby by reading the code examples in a Japanese Ruby book. He also looks at how to sneak Ruby into the enterprise, how the second edition of the book is a large step forward, and where he sees Ruby heading in the future.