Like many others, I've been playing around with Ruby a lot lately, and of course I have been very impressed with the language. I'd like to be able to say it lives up to the hype, but I don't think it's possible for anything to ever live up to that much hype.
I've written the odd little script here and there, and thought to myself that this is what Ruby is good for. As much fun as it's been, nothing big has reached out yet and struck me as a great place for using Ruby in a more comprensive way. Until a few days ago, when someone pointed me towards Sketchup, which is a very impressive 3D drawing program. It doesn't feel like a full on 3D CAD package, but it's certainly a lot more than a 2D vector drawing tool.
And here at last is the cool part - it has a Ruby API that looks fairly comprehensive. Ruby just seems like a perfect fit for this situation. Now not only do I have a very interesting language at my disposal, I have something very cool to do with it. I wish the electronics CAD package I use provided for Ruby scripts instead of the half-baked C/Pascal type language it has.
Unfortunately, there is of course a down side. It costs USD$495, which I know is probably not that much for a good 3D package, but is too much for someone that doesn't really have a need for it. I'd like to be able to give the people who wrote this software money for their work, but I can't justify that much money (it's about AUD$675 if you're wondering) on a bit of fun at the moment. I've still got some time left on the free 8 hour trial, but after that I guess it's time for me to make another attempt at figuring out the Blender user interface.