[superjared]

When I did multi-threaded Ruby stuff (shudders) I wrote a simple lock block using either an object or a symbol as the lock identifier. The resulting code looked like:

  lock(some_obj) do
    // synchronized code here
  end

Using a mechanism like that you can add synchronization to Ruby without any new syntax.

[dlikhten]

yes, true, but the real fun is in making design decisions with respect to how threads work etc to ensure true concurrency and easy concurrency. Good concurrency frameworks, etc. TBH we can do that now with the GIL by giving ruby code to a c-library that handles multi-threaded calls. But end-of-the-day lets change the game, no act catch-up to java.