Java started it: way back before the tech boom and bust the venture capitalist Ann Winblad wrote an article about a previously-unnoted aspect of the then-buzz in Java development: the Java development environment was structure such that, if done right, any developer could read the code of any other developer.

The key to this (to Ann at the time) was the elimination of the "tyranny of the developer" - codegeeks could no longer hold their company hostage as the-only-person-on-earth who could keep their code monstrosities running.

This basically proved to be true, but obscured a larger point: if coders could read each other's code, then coders could "share" each other's code, and anybody's advance could quickly make everybody's code better.

Ruby shares this trait, and goes Java one better—conventions in Ruby/Rails development are so strong and compelling that code "mashups" are not only possible, there (comparatively) quick and easy.

This blog is one example of such a mashup—the developer of the code beneath (SimpleLog, by Garrett Murray) wrote so compelling beautiful and structured an application that adding it alongside a foreign codebase (mine) only took a day or so. The latest upgrade (adding Archives (see left)) only took about an hour.

The Ruby/Rails community is in melt-up - as more developers get more skilled, the ability to extend all of our apps is growing exponentially. This is beyond cool...