What Is Ruby On Rails & Why Is It Used In Business?
Ruby is a programming language that can be used for many different purposes. Its most common use is web development.
Ruby is a high-level language, close to human: the code in it is intuitive and it is easy to write programs. The language is often used with the Ruby on Rails framework for web programming.
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The language was created in 1995 by Japanese programmer Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz), but did not become widespread in Europe until the 2000s: at first, all Ruby documentation was in Japanese and Europeans could not master it. Now this language ranks 18th in the world in terms of popularity according to the TIOBE ranking.
Most of the time, Ruby is used as a server language, but it was created as a universal language: other types of programs can be written in it.
The name is read as “Ruby”, with the accent on the first syllable. Russian-speaking developers sometimes call the Ruby on Rails framework “rails”.
Where the Ruby language is used
Matsumoto planned to create a general-purpose language. This means that, in theory, it can be used for different purposes. But most commonly, the server side of web sites and web programs are written in Ruby using the Ruby on Rails framework.
It is used by backenders and full-stack developers. It is not the only area of application, although it is the most popular. Some programs are also written in Ruby: Metasploit for pentesting, Vagrant for working with virtual environments, Homebrew for installing applications via the command line on macOS. In other words, you can find code written in Ruby in practically any area of development.
Ruby features and properties
The main idea of Ruby’s developer was to create a language that would be practical and comfortable, which could “bring joy to programmers”. The language was influenced by Perl, which Matsumoto himself considered too “toy-like”, Python and some others.
All this influenced Ruby’s syntax and quirks: the language turned out to be concise, predictable and sharp for object-oriented programming.
A language for people. Ruby is a language created in such a way that it is easy for a human to handle. It helps to eliminate the routine tasks of a programmer and entrust them to a computer. Human time and labor costs are the most important priority; if they can be reduced when performing a task, it is worth doing it. This is the basis of Ruby’s philosophy.
Another idea of the language is the ability to perform the same task in multiple ways, depending on what suits the developer. In the Ruby philosophy, clarity and elegance of the solution come before performance, except in cases where performance is critical.