Welcome, Summer of Code students!
We are incredibly pleased to announce that SciRuby and NMatrix have been accepted to Google Summer of Code 2013.
Students: Please see below for instructions on subscribing to our Google Group, where you can discuss your ideas — or our existing list of ideas — with other SciRuby folks.
Everyone else: We desperately need mentors! Please consider applying through Melange.
The SciRuby Manifesto
Ruby has for some time had no equivalent to the beautifully constructed NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib libraries for Python.
We believe that the time for a Ruby science and visualization package has come. Sometimes when a solution of sugar and water becomes super-saturated, from it precipitates a pure, delicious, and diabetes-inducing crystal of sweetness, induced by no more than the tap of a finger. So is occurring now, we believe, with numeric and visualization libraries for Ruby.
We are not the first with this idea, but we are trying to bring it to life.
Project Status
We just released our second alpha of NMatrix, the SciRuby linear algebra library.
SciRuby itself is currently pre-alpha status, as of v0.1.3. If you want to play around with the code, you can clone the repository. Otherwise, you can install using RubyGems.
The first pre-alpha includes a GUI for Rubyvis, Plotter, written by John Woods; as well as a statistical analysis domain-specific language tool, Analysis, by Claudio Bustos. It can also load many, but not all, R datasets, as long as you have R installed.
Subscribe to the SciRuby Google Group
Road Map
Our general road map for future development can be found here. Specific items that need to be accomplished in the short term are listed in our issue tracker.
Getting SciRuby
Word to the wise: These gems have been tested, but not extensively. If you’re thinking of using SciRuby to write mission critical code, such as for driving a car or flying a space shuttle, you may wish to choose other software (for now).
Instructions for installing SciRuby and NMatrix are available in our docs.
Developers
You can find the full roster on our project wiki.
Want to get involved?
Say you have a few hours and are itching to get your hands dirty. The best place to look right now is the NMatrix issue tracker on Github. Pick something that interests you and fork us!
You might also check out the SciRuby issue tracker if matrices don’t interest you much.
License
SciRuby and NMatrix are available under the BSD two-clause license.
Acknowledgements
Firstly, we wish to thank Brighter Planet for their sponsorship of our first ever SciRuby Summer of Code in 2012.
Secondly, JetBrains has kindly provided our project with an open source license for RubyMine.
Can’t code without
Thirdly, the Ruby Association has generously provided us with a rather large grant to fund a couple of SciRuby fellows. Thanks, Ruby Association!
Fourthly, Symora Networks provided a major portion of the funding toward our forthcoming application for 501(c)(3) (U.S. public charity) status.
Finally, we wish to thank the several individual donors to our project.