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## "I am looking forward to accelerating Ruby's progress" - Q&A with Matz regarding joining Heroku as a chief architect.

Date: 13th July 2011

## Introduction

As mentioned in my previous article, It has been announced that Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz) is joining Heroku as Chief Architect of Ruby. I asked Matz about the story behind his future role via email.

## My mission is to make Ruby core more functional and higher quality.

PublicKey (Q going forward): Can you explain to me how this came about?

Mr Matsumoto (Matz going forward): When I last met Mr Marc Benioff (CEO of Salesforce.com) he asked me how he could support the development of Ruby. 

So I told him that I want to improve the situation which the majority of Ruby developers face, that they are either doing their work in their own spare time or they worry about their job security.

He said he could provide us some support and that's why I decided to join Salesforce.com through Heroku (Note: Several members of Ruby core developers are currently under negotiation to join Heroku).

So, the core of our work will not change. Our mission is to develop the core of Ruby, to make Ruby more functional and higher quality. Having said that, I am expecting that the job security we are being provided and Ruby usage feedback we get from heavy Ruby users such as Heroku will accelerate the progress of Ruby development. Otherwise, there would be no point to accepting the offer.

However, joining Heroku as Chief Architect does not mean that I swear loyalty to Heroku and Salesforce.com. This does not change relationship with NaCl and Rakuten which continue to support me and for whom I also remain chairman of the Ruby association.

As for the reason for the title? I picked the name "Chief Architect" out of multiple options as it sounded most business neutral. I am not going to be involved with any business decision about Heroku in future.

Q: Do you have any expectation about your role at Heroku?

Matz: As I already mentioned, it basically remains the same, but our development progress will become faster. Besides that, I would like to have closer communication with Heroku, so that we can work out removing constraints (if any) about using Ruby at cloud environment.

Also, I would like to preserve my/our good relationship with other companies such as Engine Yard and VMWare and their trust that i am "Ruby's Matz" even after joining Heroku.

Q: Do you have any vision of Ruby and Cloud at this moment?

Matz: To be frank, Many of Ruby core developers (including myself) do not have much interest in the Web, but it is clear that cloud computing has become more and more important. So I would like to receive more input from these cloud environment and reflect that into the future direction of Ruby.

Q: Are you going to work in Silicon Valley, or join from Matsue remotely? 

Matz: My lifestyle won't change (my working style may change though), so it is most likely that I will join the development from Matsue remotely.

As far as I am concerned, I don't feel that moving to Silicon Valley would necessarily make me happier than i am now.

However, I would like to have more direct communication with people in San Francisco/Silicon Valley (including Heroku) a few times a year.

(NOTE: To be precise, the headquarters of Heroku is in San Francisco, not Silicon Valley, but it says "Silicon Valley company" at the press release.

Q: Any other comment?

Matz: I have heard that many people (outside of Japan) did not know that Ruby core team hasn't had a sustainable development model until now. I hope this movement becomes a role model for any Japanese software developer who publishes information from Japan.

Q: Thank you.