What is Ruby?

Ruby is a high-level, interpreted, general purpose programming language with a spotlight on productivity and simplicity. It was developed in the mid-1990s by Mr. Yukihiro Matsumoto in Japan. It has a chic syntax that’s natural to read and straightforward to write down. It is used in front end and back end web development and similar applications. It supports multiple programming prototypes, including procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming. Ruby was influenced by languages like Smalltalk, Eiffel, Perl, BASIC, Lisp and Ada.

History of Ruby:

Birth:              

  • Ruby was born in 1993, during a discussion between Matz and a colleague.
  • After fixing many months building an interpreter, at last he published the primary public version of Ruby 0.95 to varied Japanese domestic newsgroups in 1995.

Toddler:

  • Ruby 1.0 was released in 1996. 
  • Ruby 1.1 shortly followed in 1997, and the first stable version of Ruby, i.e. Ruby 1.2 was released in 1998.

Primary School:

  • Ruby 1.4 was released in 1999 and Ruby 1.6 in 2000.              

These two versions had slight updates to Ruby 1.2. 

  • Ruby 1.8 was released in 2003. This version made various changes including Fully Qualified Names, Duck Typing, Native YAML Support, WE Brick.

Teenager:

  • In 2007, Ruby 1.8.6 was released, with version 1.8.7 following in 2008. At now, Ruby was at its peak. Even Mac OS X began shipping it.
  • Ruby 1.9 was released in 2007, then it was stabilized after 4 years as Ruby 1.9.3. It was the production version of 1.9.
  • These versions brought new changes to the language like Significant speed improvements, New methods, including Ruby Gems, New Socket API (IPv6 support).

Adult:

  • Ruby 2.0.0 was released in the year 2013. It was completely compatible with version 1.9.3.
  • Ruby 2.1.0 was released on 2013 bringing minor changes to the language. Ruby 2.1.1 was released in 2014. This version mainly improved speed.
  • Soon after 2.1.1, Ruby 2.1.2 was released in 2014. It consists of improved bug fixes and is the current stable version of Ruby.

The Ruby language is now 21 years old. Its adoption by the open source society has kept this programming language steady and improving its standard. From 0.95 to 2.1.2, Ruby has struck the amazement of those who wished to program the way they wanted and not the way the machine wanted.     

How Does Ruby Compare to Other Coding Languages?

Ruby vs Python:

Python is a programming language that focuses on having a distinct solution to every problem whereas Ruby want to have many valid approaches in solving the problem.

Strings are not mutable in Python while on the contrary, they are mutable in Ruby. Ruby contains only one kind of list container. 

Ruby vs C++/C:

Compared to C++/C, Ruby tends to cover tons from programmers to form their jobs easier. This makes it much easier to ship code, but means finding deep bugs might require tons more digging.

Uses of Ruby: 

Ruby is mostly used for building web applications. However, it’s a general-purpose language almost like Python, hence it’s many other applications like prototyping, data analysis, and proof of concepts.

Homebrew, a particularly popular tool for installing software packages on macOS, is additionally written in Ruby. It is also used in the security software Metasploit, which allows us to test websites and applications for how easily they can be broken into.

Ruby ranks eighth in the Red Monk rating and twelfth in the TIOBE index for popular programming language. 

                                                             

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