May has been a busy month in the Ruby world, and while I’ve been busy with work, Erlang, and other commitments I’ve tried hard not to lose track of things. Here are some of the things that have caught my eye.

Ruby SoC

This year, there are fourteen Ruby projects that are being sponsored by the Google Summer of Code. Gregory Brown is keeping track of them over at the O’Reilly Ruby blog. Keeping track of how these projects go should be both easy and fun thanks to Gregory’s work..

Ruport

Last year’s Summer of Code produced a number of great things, including Ruport (a reporting tool for Ruby and Rails). The Ruport team has continued to work on it since the 2006 SoC ended, and recently made a 1.0 release. They’ve also started a new initiative—a PDF and printed book about Ruport. They’re planning on release this book under a Free license, but are looking for support to help fund the initial writing and editing. More information is available (pledges can be made here via pledgie.com).

RSpec

The RSpec Project has also cut a 1.0 release, solidifying the API and making BDD testing goodness available to Ruby users everywhere.

Regional Ruby Conferences

After the three regional Ruby conferences this spring, It looks like we’ve got two more to look forward to later this summer. RubyHoedown will be held in Raliegh, NC on August 10 and 11. Lone Star RubyConf will be held in Austin, TX on September 7 and 8.