Ruby Future Or?

[Robert Johns]

I was thinking today and I was wondering if ruby has a future when
python is being to widely accepted. Outside of rails, because I have no
want to code in rails.

Thanks

 

[John Feminella]

I guess it depends on what you mean by "having a future". Ruby's never
going to compete on a performance basis with, say, C or x86, no
matter how good it gets (unless there's a radical transformation in
how the language works). But that's okay, because every language is
good at different things. Ruby is great for a sizable number of those
things (expressive domain modeling, scripting, web applications,
etc.), at the expense of being less good for some of them (shuttle
launch software, onboard missile guidance, etc.).

It's always up to the developer to pick the right tool for the job,
not the popular tool for the job.

 

[Robert Klemme]

I was thinking today and I was wondering if ruby has a future when
python is being to widely accepted. Outside of rails, because I have no
want to code in rails.

If I could answer your question I would be in possession of a crystal
ball and be making money predicting lottery results of next week.

Don't speculate too much. As long as there are enough people using Ruby
it will stay. Remember when they said Cobol was dead? That must be
ages already and what happened: there are still Cobol coders around. I
just yesterday talked to one in person.

Cheers

robert

 

[Clifford Heath]

there are still Cobol coders around. I just
yesterday talked to one in person.

ahh, but did s/he answer you?

(ref to Wayne and Shuster)

 

[Robert Klemme]

ahh, but did s/he answer you?

(ref to Wayne and Shuster)

Yes, she did!

robert

 

[Joel VanderWerf]

I was thinking today and I was wondering if ruby has a future when
python is being to widely accepted. Outside of rails, because I have no
want to code in rails.

Well, what kind of code _do_ you want to write? There are still some of
us here who use ruby for things other than rails.

 

[Stu]

Python and Ruby are pretty much in the same boat. Python won't be the
Ruby killer. Ruby is also widely accepted at this time. It's concepts
and paradigm will be around for along time to come. If anything has
changed in the last decade maybe perl usage has slowed down. But perl
is not going anywhere anytime soon. Even awk is still used today.
Maybe not to the extent it was twenty and thirty years ago but it's
still a useful tool for what it's meant for.

I realize you have no interest in rails. There are many tools to
create dynamic web projects with. Many gems in the ruby world to aid
to that effect without using rails. Now the politics of evaluating and
educating your 'pointy haired boss' what tools and frameworks to use
outside of rails is left to your own discretion. I realize this wont
be simple task because your employer most likely has been pounded with
buzz terms such as 'agile' 'web2.0' 'refactoring' 'cloud' 'scrum'
'tdd' 'bdd' 'ruby on rails' 'ajax' and probably would have never heard
of this programming language from the far east if it wasn't for the
buzz in the last several years.

I wouldn't worry to much though about displacement. Ruby is here to stay.

 

[Vassilis Rizopoulos]

I was thinking today and I was wondering if ruby has a future when
python is being to widely accepted. Outside of rails, because I have no
want to code in rails.

Been coding in Ruby since 2001 and I've never done Rails while I have
done only minimal web application programming.
In the last 5 years I code almost exclusively in Ruby mostly building
tools that build tools, that build tools ad infinitum.
When I started I was the only person using Ruby in my firm and in any of
my client's firms.
There used to be the Python vs. Ruby question in our ptojects but that
has stopped being asked now as there's at least 10 people with
significant Ruby experience in the firm and we have a whole heap of
tools and knowledge to fall back on.
So no, I don't see Ruby going away anytime soon.
Cheers,
V.-

 

[spiralofhope]

I was thinking today and I was wondering if ruby has a future when
python is being to widely accepted. Outside of rails, because I have
no want to code in rails.

I was thinking today and I was wondering if apples have a future when
oranges are being widely accepted. Outside of apple pie, because I
have no want to eat apples. =)

Perhaps you are asking: "Do you think that in the future I will be able
to find work programming with Ruby, even if I don't want to program
with Rails?"

 

[Kirk Haines]

From what I've seen, Rails is a primary job skill sought by employers.
Ruby without Rails, however, seems to be just a "bonus", if employers
notice it at all.

It depends. We (Engine Yard) employ several people for whom Ruby
related work is their daily bread and butter, but those people do not
spend their days writing Rails apps.


Kirk Haines
Software Guy
Engine Yard

 

[Daniel Berger]

Python and Ruby are pretty much in the same boat. Python won't be the
Ruby killer.

My prediction? Javascript eventually kills the other dynamic languages
in the web development arena. Why use two languages when you can use
one?

Regards,

Dan

 

[spiralofhope]

My prediction? Javascript eventually kills the other dynamic languages
in the web development arena. Why use two languages when you can use
one?

I agree, but only in the sense that there are some fantastic tools[1]
out there which abstract things and present an alternate syntax.

Variety is demanded when people disagree strongly on the use of a
single tool. But if that single tool has a way of being used
differently by those different people, then less people will disagree,
and less strongly.

[1] The one example that comes to mind is http://jquery.com/

 

[Stu]

Seeing that I was referring to UNIX shell scripting I don't see how
this applies.

 

[Zach Dennis]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

I was thinking today and I was wondering if ruby has a future when
python is being to widely accepted. Outside of rails, because I have no
want to code in rails.

I found it interesting to see Walter Bright (creator of D) comment in an
interview that he thought Ruby was the language to watch (see the very last
question in the interview):

http://www.bitwisemag.com/copy/programming/d/interview/d_programming_language.html


--
Zach Dennis
http://www.continuousthinking.com (personal)
http://www.mutuallyhuman.com (hire me)
http://ideafoundry.info/behavior-driven-development (first rate BDD
training)
@zachdennis (twitter)

 

[Thiel Chang]

Op 16-5-2011 23:49, spiralofhope schreef:

My prediction? Javascript eventually kills the other dynamic languages
in the web development arena. Why use two languages when you can use
one?

I agree, but only in the sense that there are some fantastic tools[1]
out there which abstract things and present an alternate syntax.

Variety is demanded when people disagree strongly on the use of a
single tool. But if that single tool has a way of being used
differently by those different people, then less people will disagree,
and less strongly.

[1] The one example that comes to mind is http://jquery.com/

I disagree with Daniel. Program languages cannot be predicted. Distrust
anyone who claims to know the programming language future, however dimly.
If astrology worked, all astrologers would be rich.

Thiel Chang

 

[Daniel Berger]

Op 16-5-2011 23:49, spiralofhope schreef:

My prediction? Javascript eventually kills the other dynamic languages
in the web development arena. Why use two languages when you can use
one?

I agree, but only in the sense that there are some fantastic tools[1]
out there which abstract things and present an alternate syntax.

Variety is demanded when people disagree strongly on the use of a
single tool. But if that single tool has a way of being used
differently by those different people, then less people will disagree,
and less strongly.

[1] The one example that comes to mind is http://jquery.com/

I disagree with Daniel. Program languages cannot be predicted. Distrust
anyone who claims to know the programming language future, however dimly.
If astrology worked, all astrologers would be rich.

If you want to equate 15 years of experience, job trending and tech
trending to astrology, sure.

Regards,

Dan

 

[Ralf Mueller]

My prediction? Javascript eventually kills the other dynamic languages
in the web development arena. Why use two languages when you can use
one?

Sorry, but this argument just does NOT count (for me). It's leads to the question: Why develop something new?
The is no language, which can to everything to the utmost satisfaction of every programmer. This will NOT happen.
In contrast every language has areas, where is works fine and others which are tricky to handle with. Even if
you stick to web-development (which is itself a large area), JS is not ... let's say that well suited from a
programmers point of view. I'd love to see a beautifully designed language like Ruby doing client side
web-programming. The other thing is taste: I personally don't like the idea of giving space such a meaning in
a programming language. That's one of the reasons, I dislike about Python.
Or in other words: Did we really need a dynamic language after PERL? The answer is YES, isn't it?


cheers
ralf

 

[Rimantas Liubertas]

I'd love to see a beautifully designed language like Ruby doing client side

web-programming.

Well, not exactly what you want, but take a look at http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/


Regards,
Rimantas

 

[7stud --]

The other thing is taste: I personally don't like the

idea of giving space such a meaning in
a programming language. That's one of the reasons,
I dislike about Python.

Do you really think all those cascading 'ends' in Ruby (that you can
never get right nor locate the missing 'end') are better?

 

[Sam Duncan]

Hrm, peach or nectarine, peach or nectarine ...

Sooo hard to choose which tasty nutritious stone fruit to eat. But once
I do, the eaters of that OTHER tasty stone fruit are gonna hear about
it, that's for darn tootin'.