The community that grows up around a programming language is one of its most important strengths. Ruby has a vibrant and growing community that is friendly towards people of all skill levels.
If you are interested in getting involved, here are a couple of places to start:
- Ruby User Groups
- Your local Ruby user group is a great place to network with other Ruby programmers. Ruby user groups are self-organizing and typically feature monthly meetings, a mailing list, a Web site, and if you are lucky, frequent codefests.
- Ruby Mailing Lists and Newsgroups
- Ruby has an assortment of lists on different topics and in several languages. If you have questions about Ruby, asking them on a mailing list is a great way to get answers.
- Ruby on IRC (#ruby)
- The Ruby Language IRC Channel is a wonderful way to chat with fellow Rubyists.
- Ruby Core
- Now is a fantastic time to follow Ruby’s development. If you are interested in helping with Ruby, start here.
- Weblogs About Ruby
- Very little happens in the Ruby community that is not talked about on the blogs. We’ve got a nice list of suggestions for you here for getting plugged in.
- Ruby Conferences
- Ruby programmers around the world are getting involved in more and more conferences, where they get together to share reports on work-in-progress, discuss the future of Ruby, and welcome newcomers to the Ruby community.
- General Ruby Information