What’s Ruby?
Ruby is a popular programming language that FireStorm has made available for the first time in its hosting packages and root servers. Here you have a guide for setting up the programming language: https://www.firestorm.ch/kb/ruby-einrichten/ This has many advantages for the user and can be used in many different areas. In this short article you will learn more about Ruby, its advantages and possible applications as well as its history. – We hope you enjoy reading it!
Ruby is an open source programming language created by the Japanese developer Matsumoto.
What exactly is Ruby?
As described in the introduction, Ruby is a programming language. Over time, it has evolved into an open source programming language. Thus Ruby is always kept up to date and used frequently. Through mostly annual optimizations and extensions of the programming language not only the usability but also the functionality increases constantly. These are some of many reasons for the great popularity of Ruby as an Open Source programming language.
Ruby is also a multiparadigm language, which partly resembles the well-known programming language C++. Under the ISO/IEC 30170 standard, the programming language has been precisely specified under the Ruby standard since 2012. However, you can find out what comes before this Ruby specification and how the programming language was developed in the next paragraph.
How was Ruby created?
Ruby’s first release as a programming language was in 1995, when Ruby was significantly developed and promoted by developer Yukihiro Matsumoto. The developer’s passion and conviction for his programming language are also reflected in his naming. Because Ruby is English and means “Rubin” in German.
During the development Yukihiro Matsumoto from Japan focused on denying the advantages of his favourite programming languages. These programming languages were besides Ada and Eiffel also Lisp and Smalltalk. In addition, his goal was to create greater flexibility and functionality than the Perl programming language and at the same time a greater object orientation than Python, which is also a well-known programming language.
Especially in Japan, Ruby was very popular as a programming language right from the start. Despite this great popularity, Ruby was slow to get into the western world and to us in Europe. The reason for this was that there were still no good instructions and explanations for the western market. These appeared only in the years 2000 and 2004. Thus also here in Germany many people discovered Ruby and recognized its numerous advantages, to which we come now in the next paragraph.
After the Ruby, which was appreciated in Japan, came to the western world with instructions from the 2000s, the programming language became more and more popular in Europe.
What benefits does Ruby offer its users?
Ruby convinces its users above all in terms of flexibility. The programming language is simple and can be extended without any problems. Ruby can therefore be used not only under Windows and Linux, but also under MacOS, DOS, OS/2 and BeOS. This versatility and flexibility has allowed Ruby to be used in a wide variety of applications.
In addition, programming with Ruby is relatively easy and poses no challenges to programmers who know another modern programming language, either in terms of readability or programmability. Ruby has many similarities with the Perl and Smalltalk programming languages. Thus Ruby is completely object-oriented, like Smalltalk, and is at the same time very pleasant and easy to use, whereby it comes very close to Perl. This combination makes Ruby an efficient and easy-to-use programming language.
Ruby is also a multi-paradigm language that is compatible with the basics of Extreme Programming. Therefore it is possible to write parts of the software written in Ruby in other programming languages. This possibility is very helpful in individual cases, if other programming languages fulfill the respective requirements better and the conceptions are thereby better realizable. This expands the field of work with Ruby enormously.
As an object-oriented programming language, Ruby combines a high degree of flexibility and diversity with simple programmability and a high degree of functional diversity.
Where can Ruby be used?
The wide variety and flexibility of Ruby allows programmers to implement a wide variety of projects with Ruby. Therefore, the application areas are quite large and diverse. However, Ruby is mostly used in the script language of web servers, with the “Ruby on Rails” framework. Ruby can also be used flexibly for other applications in the area of servers.
Beyond that there are of course still further possibilities of the use and application for Ruby. The flexibility allows a wide applicability of the programming language for all interested programmers.