I just finished reading through a thread on the ruby-talk mailing list that was titled Is a block converted to a Proc object before yield? and it reminded me of one of the non-technical reasons that I love the Ruby programming language: the community!

First of all, in how many language communities will you find the creator of the language personally answering questions like this? Its not unheard of, but its not common either. Sam, the poster of the question, responded with heartfelt appreciation:

    Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:

    > |Is a block still converted to a Proc object implicitly?
    >
    > Not under the current implementation.
    >
    >                                                       matz.

    I'm pretty sure that this is a very official answer...:-)

    Matz, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for making me a happy
    programmer with Ruby.

    Sam

Secondly, the Ruby community has always been a friendly place, relatively free of rude behavior. It is pretty much populated by real people with a sense of cooperation and helpfulness. Sam’s thank you prompted another thank you followed by another reply by Matz that earned my odd looks from my coworkers when I started laughing out loud:

	DEBAUN, STEVE  Thu, Jun 29, 2006 at 1:28 PM  

	Can I second that motion?!?!?

	I was a programming burn-out.  I was broken by a lifetime of shitty projects
	and shitty languages.  One too many for-loops had left me a hollow shell of
	a man.  I was ready to quit 'the biz' entirely.  I yearned for a job that
	involved things that did not require debugging.  Like... tiles.  Aren't
	tiles nice?  Wouldn't it be fun to run a tile business?

	Then I discovered ruby.  Clouds parted, rays of light streaming down, the
	host of heaven singing their angelic choirs.

	Now, once again, I love what I do.

	Thanks Matz!!!11!!!111oneone!11one1  That is one man I will definitely buy a
	beer for.

	Sd

	Yukihiro Matsumoto  Fri, Jun 30, 2006 at 7:21 AM  

	Tiles are nice.  My father used to sell tiles before his retirement.
	I am not sure if it's fun though.

	                                         matz.

Over the years we’ve had a few challenges to the keep-it-civil meme that permeates the Ruby culture. But the community’s response has usually been to just ignore the flame-monger, who eventually gets bored from the lack of response and simply goes away.

We all know that technical excellence alone does not make for success, but when you combine that with our killer community, it almost seems inevitable!