Having the creator of Ruby give a presentation outlining the shortcomings and planning for future fixes points more to something 'good' about Ruby than to something sucky.
I do agree that it speaks well about the developer, but your opinion about whether Ruby currently sucks or not should be informed by the content of the slides.
[edit] I can show you a shoe box and call it a car. I can candidly explain to you how it falls short of current cars, and how I will remedy these problems. All of that does not hide the fact that my shoe box is currently a sucky car.
no. for instance, presentations about Rails are often about why other things suck (PHP, Java, VC-funded startups, etc.)
But, in reality, all software sucks. If they can't see the suckage, it's just because of their ignorance.
The slides and the issues they outline were from 2003. Many of those issues have been/are being fixed.
The development outlined has taken and is taking place. I view that as a success of the Ruby community and I also believe Ruby to be a good language now that many of these issues are fixed.
Therefore, I believe these slides point to good things about Ruby.
Judging from the list on these slides, I think you're being a bit sanguine about the state of Ruby; at least four of the seven issues are still outstanding.
What do you want, someone to act like George W. Bush and claim that everything is going perfectly? Matz is at least willing to see the good and the bad and to openly acknowledge it.
Unlike GWB's rhetoric (which you seem to prefer) this is not a religious war. Just use the right tool for the job.
I personally do not find it distasteful when someone is honest about the shortcomings of their project. It takes humility to do this, and it's totally uncool to rip on someone when they do it.