You are equating MRI with Ruby. Most would probably agree, still I wonder if that should be the case. If someone came along and fixed some ruby weak points (concurrency, performance, subtle bugs) I would be happy to call it ruby just like we call java java regardless of whether we use openjdk or oracle. At some point that might lead to an actual spec...
As far as there is a practical definition of "Ruby", MRI (which actually has, since 1.9, been YARV, a previous compatible-with-MRI alternative implementation) is it.
> If someone came along and fixed some ruby weak points (concurrency, performance, subtle bugs) I would be happy to call it ruby
If it wasn't compatible with existing Ruby and you couldn't use existing Ruby with it, why would you be happy to call it Ruby?
> just like we call java java regardless of whether we use openjdk or oracle.
OpenJDK's relation to Oracle's JDK is more that between Chromium and Chrome than that between Ruby and an alternative and incompatible-but-similar language from a third party.
> At some point that might lead to an actual spec...
"If it wasn't compatible with existing Ruby and you couldn't use existing Ruby with it, why would you be happy to call it Ruby?"
Im happy calling clojure a Lisp? Why not call this new 95% similiar language by what it is - a Ruby? If it were 20-25% similar (elixir) or even 60% I could call it ruby like X lang and be done. Thats not what the point Ive been trying to make though.
When is an object a bowl and not a cup? Is it when it loses its handle? What about if it has a handle but is wide and open and deep? I personally dont think its as binary as your making it out to be (100% compatibility yes/no). If this were the case there would a canonical Lisp and no one else could refer to a lisp as such.
"Like ISO/IEC 30170:2012?" No, that hasnt been revisited since 2010 was for ruby 1.8.7, and doesnt include the whole standard library, which means if you want to accept that youd have to throw out your argument because by your very definition it couldnt be a spec for a Ruby since it doesnt include all exact behavior like mri.
