Software & Open Source
Perl, web applications, developer tools, databases, and the communities that keep open-source software alive.
See the code →Hi. I'm Ruth.
I build things.
I explain things.
Sometimes I take things apart.
Software developer, open-source nerd, writer, and maker. Different tools, same curiosity.
What I do
Curiosity has terrible respect for job descriptions.
I've spent a lot of years learning how things work, building useful things, and helping other people make sense of them. These are the four neighborhoods where most of that happens.
Writing & Books
Technical explanations, practical how-tos, and books for people who would rather understand the thing than merely use it.
See the writing →Projects & Businesses
Hart Woods is where ideas become actual things: publishing, consulting, planning tools, media, and other useful mischief.
Meet Hart Woods →On the bench now
What I'm working on
Those Within Reach
A character-driven first-contact novel about grief, connection, and what two very different peoples can learn from one another.
Perl & community work
Writing code, maintaining modules...pretty un-glamorous stuff, usually.
The Perl and Raku Foundation
Serving as Co-Treasurer of The Perl and Raku Foundation, helping support the people, projects, and infrastructure behind the Perl and Raku communities.
This section is intentionally easy to edit. Because “what I'm working on” has never been a particularly stable concept.
Software & open source
Code is a tool.
Community is infrastructure.
I've worked in software for decades and spent much of the last twenty years writing Perl. I build web applications and developer tools, maintain CPAN distributions, and contribute to the organizational work around the Perl and Raku communities.
These days you'll find my public code scattered across the usual forges, with more of my Perl work moving toward Codeberg.
Writing
Make the complicated thing make sense.
I have written some science fiction as Lyla Hopper, where the tools are spaceships and societies instead of editors and soldering irons.
I have also, from time to time, reviewed fiction for my friend Marlene Harris over at Reading Reality, under the pen name Amy Daltry. It's been a hot minute, but you never know when I'll turn back up there.
Hart Woods
Where the projects acquire names.
Hart Woods Group is the umbrella for the businesses and projects I build with other people—and occasionally because I couldn't leave a perfectly good idea alone.
Hart Woods GroupThe roof over the whole peculiar little village.
Hart Woods ConsultingPractical technology, operations, and business consulting for organizations that need things to work.
Cairn PlannerA practical system for finding direction and taking the next useful step.
Mad Hatter CardzPokémon cards, collectibles, card shows, and a little madness.
About Ruth
Specialization remains highly overrated.
Growing up, my father taught me to solve problems and to keep learning. That stuck.
I'm a software developer, open-source contributor, writer, maker, project wrangler, and serial learner. I've spent a career moving between code, organizations, tools, books, and whatever interesting problem happens to be sitting in front of me.
The list changes. The connecting thread doesn't: I like figuring things out, making useful things, and helping other people understand what I've learned.
“Specialization is for insects.”
— Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
Say hello
Got an interesting problem?
Software, open source, writing, making, consulting, or something difficult to categorize? Those are usually the fun ones.
