probably not doing more Ruby programming this year

I am pretty busy right now. I like to be learning new things in my spare time so I am prepared for the next big wave.

Ruby got a lot of buzz and I do think it is a good fit for some types of programming. Java seems to get better performance and has more error checking. Java programs compile much faster than C++ programs did back in the 1990's when Ruby was invented.

The relative advantages of being an interpreted language like Ruby have somewhat declined. The importance of having a program checked as much as possible before executing remains quite high for production environments: web, enterprise system, etc.

My current area of interest and study is Mac programming: Objective-C and the Cocoa framework.

I am already quite good at Java 6 and all the versions that came before it. Native Macintosh programs have capabilities that are quite unique compared to portable Java programs and Windows, Linux, and Unix programs.

Macs are where GUI software was first served up to the masses, and the Mac and its spin-off NeXT are what gave birth to the web about two decades ago. I want to see just how far this platform can go, and take advantage of its strengths. I can program it with Ruby, Python, Java, etc. and I have. Now, I want to move on and program it with its own native tools, languages, and frameworks.