Though I missed some sessions and social activities due to all-consuming fatigue and flu symptoms, I enjoyed my Rubyconf X-treme X-perience*. Here’s what I thought particularly stood out:

On a professional “developing my craft” level:

1. @tenderlove’s talk, “ZOMG WHY IS THIS CODE SO SLOW” was a great—and well presented—overview of how to break down a complex system and rebuild it in a clean, performant manner. The talk shifted back and forth between some clearly developed principles and Aaron’s actual work rebuilding ARel for performance reasons.
2. The twin pairing of Shugo Maeda’s talk on Refinements and Classboxes with @yukihiro_matz’s keynote on Ruby 2 and Rite. Rite is an configurable, embedded flavor of the Ruby VM that is targeting gadgets and household appliances. Ruby 2 will preserve all the “Ruby is for consenting adults” power and expressivity of the language but will provide tools to keep things clean (Refinements and method wrapping).

On a personal “this is really awesome must play with it” level:

1. @merbist’s update on what MacRuby has been up to and where it is at… and where it could go. I haven’t really had the time to check in on MacRuby in awhile so it was awesome to see the progress they’ve made since last year. It’s got a kick-ass GC, has native Grand Central Dispatch support, supports pretty much all the Cocoa stuff, etc etc. With Apple backing MacRuby and recently pitching Java over the side… I wonder. You can’t target iOS right now (no GC), but Matt Aimonetti coyly told the audience that it “would be possible without a huge effort” to get there. Hmmmm.

On a philosophical “I wonder if other conferences have these sort of talks” level:

1. Dave Thomas’ keynote and challenges to the community. Documented here earlier.
2. @dhh’s idiosyncratic and foul-mouthed rambling walk through politics, aesthetics, and philosophy titled “Why Ruby?”: his message about personal freedom and responsibility in a programming context paired nicely with a bunch of my recent reading material and the TSA-related horrorshow that cropped up shortly before the conference opened.

And, finally, New Orleans, and the New Orleans ruby community, some of which I got to experience, but not half so much as I wanted to and certainly less than half as fully as they deserved. Job well done as hosts.** Bonus points for my cab driver on the way out who, upon learning I was from Michigan, launched into a more optimistic defense and projection for the auto industry than I would have suspected possible outside Michigan. I had to council lowered expectations! He loves his chevy, though, so that’s something Detroit’s got in its corner that I bet it doesn’t know about: New Orleans-based immigrant cab drivers from the middle east.

(* with apologies to @tenderlove for stealing his joke.)

(** New Orleans felt a lot like a warmer version of Detroit that everyone still likes to visit: old, gorgeous but rundown buildings, tons of vacant lots and breaking down buildings, some new development, but yet nobody seemed intimidated or frightened by it. Southern hospitality? Lack of bad press? Who knows.)