Ruby.

[SpringHeeledJack]

"Oh Ruuuuuuby, don't take your love to town"

Whilst on a train today a trackside banner proclaiming 'Ruby developers wanted' caught my eye. I gargoyled it when home and confirmed that it was a web-development language/platform, but then my eyes clouded over. Out of pure curiosity would any of the IT eggspurts wot grace these pages be able to explain why it's the next great thing for a non IT expert and suchlike ? No big words allowed ;)



SHJ

[cdtaylor_nats]

Ruby is just another in a long line of languages. To use it you need to be familiar with object oriented concepts and with functional languages like Lisp.

Its not really applicable to non-programmers.

Its supporters claim its number 9 in language popularity. Its also free which might have something to do with its popularity.

[mixture]

SpringHeeledJack,

Well, I wouldn't quite call Ruby supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. :cool:

Different programming languages have the same effect on developers as the old mac, windows, nix/nux debate has on your average computer user, i.e. it leads to many disagreements and no firm answer.

Ruby is one of the newest languages to hit the IT crowd (along side the likes of Python). PHP, Perl & Java are the next big names one generation back. And finally the old-school, but mature like a good wine names like C.


The reason the likes of Ruby, Python, PHP and Perl are popular is that they are interpreted languages, not compiled ones.

This means they are easy to learn because you just write scripts without needing to worry about the voodoo magic that goes on behind the scenes (such as the black art of memory management etc.) . This in turn, leads to an easy life in the commercial world where buzzwords such as "agile development" where trendy companies want quick results, and none of the traditional development model of sitting down and planning things before you start to hack away at your keyboard. On the other hand, compiled languages such as C and Java demand more a more disciplined work ethic.

I could go on for ages, but basically scripting languages are a much of muchness (because you hand off control of all the interesting stuff to the blackbox interpreter they're all basically dumb languages) ..... in the right hands, they are all a great tool. In the wrong hands, you end up with a dog slow, buggy, insecure application written by people who don't understand how a database works and think the work of the database should be done by their poorly coded scripts (to cite one common example).

As for why "ruby developers wanted" ... well, trendy "web 2.0" developers seem to think newer is better and would much rather use a funky new coding method that's only been around a few minutes rather than writing something decent in more mature languages. But then that probably reflects the average short lifespan of the websites they produce .... :E

[green granite]

Don't know why they cant use assembler. :E

[Keef]

I played with a Linux-and-Ruby installation on my "tinkering PC". Not for long.

There was another one called Emerald - I think short-lived cos I've not heard of it lately.

[SpringHeeledJack]

So, would Ruby be somewhat like the background process of those websites that you can cobble together by dragging and dropping text/links/photos etc into areas within the screen page ?



SHJ

[mixture]

SpringHeeledJack,

Apart from calling it a "background process", you are along the right lines. Interpreted scripting languages don't run as background processes, they are parsed and interpreted on demand by a plugin for the web server software (which is the background process that listens to port 80 and talks back to your web browser).

Other than that, you're along the right lines. On a website with a content management system (which is essentially what you're describing), the designers create a template with editable regions. Then scripts written in whatever language are used to insert content into the regions and to call it up on demand based on what page you are on (typically the content is stored in a database, making the website fully dynamic apart from the static template).

[mixture]

Don't know why they cant use assembler

Assembly .... pah.... Machine Code is where the cool kids hang out... :E

Or if you're really cool (or, in real life, are well funded and demand the highest possible performance) you design and manufacture an ASIC which puts your programming logic into solid physical silicon.

(unfortunatley I know neither.... never been much into programming )

[SpringHeeledJack]

Well to be honest, I'm not sure if my Ruby is on rails or not, but I guess that my superficial knowledge of it has been satisfied more or less. Thanks all for the replies :8



SHJ