# Is RUBY what I'm looking for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 1, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-ruby-what-im-looking-for/77864 "2006-12-01T02:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gcarcass](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@gcarcass](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gcarcass)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-ruby-what-im-looking-for/77864/1 "2006-12-01T02:15:57Z")
Hello!!! I have a question, that I hope someone will answer according to what I expect, or basically to what I’m asking. I’m a Graphic designer completely new to programmnig languages, but I’ve been studying hard the basis and as long as it refers to “theory” I really understand the concepts of arrays, classes, objects, looping, operators, functions and whatever you expect from a common programming language. BUT! as I said before I’m a graphic designer, I see the world through symbols and images. I’ve been doing a lot of small applications that I need for my research (related with manipulation of graphic interfaces oriented to handicapped people), I need a language with a rich VISUAL DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT (once again, I’m a graphic designer), I already spent too much time thinking in the projects and I don’t want to spend even more time just coding. Of course not only a visual environment, but also a with a great deal of multimedia manipulation. For example, RealBASIC has a very good development envinronment and can compile for Mac, Windows and Linux, but lack of multimedia features, that…ok ok you can do things, but you have to code much more. There is a multimedia solution MACROMEDIA DIRECTOR MX, a kind of Flash on steroids, it has many (actually it is its main purpose) multimedia features, works with a very high leval scripting language called LINGO,a dn it can compile to Mac and Windows, but it lacks of many features from a proper and robust programming language. C and its derivatives are strong, but, ok, ok, I’M a graphic designer!!! I was checking Python, but clicking and clicking I found Ruby, I got captivated by its syntax and simplicity. Everybody is talking a great deal about RUBY, and I don’t know if it is what I’m looking for. Can it be developed in a rich visual environment, can it be integrated into the OSX (as you may expect (cause I’m a visual person) I use Macintosh). I hope someone will answer my question with “ruby” features, simple, elegant, and direct. Bye, thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![gcarcass](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@gcarcass](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gcarcass)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-ruby-what-im-looking-for/77864/2 "2006-12-01T03:05:55Z")
The best person that can give you that answer is yourself. And fortunately Ruby allows you to do that quickly. I recommend that you download a tiral version of Komodo (an IDE for dynamic languages with recent Ruby support). And you should already have Ruby on your Mac. Then write a few simple programs that help you solve problems in your space and see where it goes. The good thing with Ruby is that there’s an energetic and active community around it with lots of free libraries and good forums. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![gcarcass](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@gcarcass](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gcarcass)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2006, 7:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-ruby-what-im-looking-for/77864/3 "2006-12-04T07:52:54Z")
Thanks a lot ! Actually i’ve been checking a lot Ruby lately, and It seems perfect for me, on a syntac context. I’m not sure about the IDE, but I think I’ll give a try, specially that it’s beena anounced that Xcode 3 will have Ruby support. Thanks again.