From: Alpha Blue Date: 2010-02-03T01:39:27+09:00 Subject: Re: Why Ruby? > Is Ruby a good choice as a general usage programming language? Why (or > why not)? Ruby is an object-oriented language. If you like OOL languages, then Ruby is perfect for you. It allows you the freedom to create without a lot of constraints. Ruby on Rails is not a language but a framework, much like PHP is a language but it is also composed of different frameworks. Ruby on Rails is a big reason why people learn Ruby, but it's not the only reason, just one of them. Here are the absolute PROs to using Ruby: * You can setup multiple ruby installations anywhere - C:\ruby C:\ruby19 C:\rubyisgood C:\myrubyisbetter .. for multiple versions and work with all of them. It supports Windows, Linux, and MAC. * There are multiple types of ruby, each suited just for you! Ruby EE (Enterprise Edition - non windows) JRuby (Java compiled Ruby) Ruby 1.8.7 (standard) Ruby 1.9.x (latest) etc.. * You have multiple graphical libraries you can use, dependent on your style of GUI design: FxRuby WxRuby Tk Monkeybars etc. etc. the list goes on and on * You have one of the biggest if not the best frameworks to use with Ruby on Rails and a community that is so thriving around it, that there is an average of 200+ emails per day just from that community alone in support of development and response. So, if you like web development, this is the right place for that. In only one year of ruby development and 10 months of ruby on rails development, I've created 3 full production web-sites, including one paid subscription site, and a handful of console applications. I'm working on a full-featured GUI application and having a lot of fun with wxruby. In other-words, you can do a lot with Ruby in a short amount of time. There is instant gratification. And, lastly, there are multiple testing environments for your code from TDD to BDD with Rspec, Cucumber, etc. and not many language communities thrive on the idea of testing - ruby does. The CONS: For me the cons really revolve around documentation, but mainly with the older RDOC styles that Ruby uses. The older RDOC styles are harder to read, IMO, compared to something like Microsoft's MSDN library where everything is search-able and organized in a way that I enjoy. Others might disagree with me and feel that the older RDOC style is fine. But, to each his own. Versioning differences can be difficult to understand and follow unless you are in the core mainstream hub and understand all of the nuances of what is being changed, updated, or coerced. But, if you are new to the language, you might not suffer from that as badly if you stick with 1.9+ as there is now a compiler for windows and you can easily install from mac and linux. === Other than that, you have my take on it. I have programmed in many different languages and Ruby is the one for me now. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.