Ruby 1.9, Nokogiri, Tender Lovemaking (Interview)

Tenderlove's Journey

Aaron Patterson, known as Tenderlove, is a prominent figure in the Ruby community, celebrated for his work on various projects, most notably Nokogiri, an XML and HTML parsing library. His unique online persona, characterized by humor and a distinctive style, has made him a recognizable name beyond his technical contributions. Aaron shares that his nickname, Tenderlove, originated from a humorous conversation with friends, leading to the creation of his blog, tenderlovemaking.com 1.

   

Conference Insights

Aaron has been a significant presence at Ruby conferences, including the Red Dirt Ruby Conf and Ruby Kagi. He describes Ruby Kagi as a C conference disguised as a Ruby conference due to its technical depth, contrasting it with the more Rails-focused Rubyconf in the U.S. 2. At the upcoming Red Dirt Ruby Conf, Aaron is set to keynote, bringing his expertise and humor to the event 3.

   

Community Gems

Within the Ruby community, Aaron is often recognized as the "Nokogiri guy" or by his nickname, Tenderlove. His journey into Ruby began with a transition from Perl and Java, leading to his development of the Mechanize gem, which eventually paved the way for Nokogiri 4. Aaron's contributions have made him a well-known figure, with his work on gems like FasterCSV frequently cited by peers 5.