I am wondering whether to learn Ruby, as I would like to get a job after
learning.
Is Ruby a dying language?
Many thanks for the answers, sorry my English isn’t that great.
On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 12:51 PM, Din I. [email protected] wrote:
I am wondering whether to learn Ruby, as I would like to get a job after
learning.
Yes, however for every ruby job there are 10 bad php jobs.
However, Ruby just might give you the discipline to be a better
programmer.
Is Ruby a dying language?
It’s about as dying of a language as English.
Many thanks for the answers, sorry my English isn’t that great.
Respectfully,
Andrew McElroy
TryRuby.org
Jobserve (UK) today:
Java 1154 jobs
C# 953 jobs
Ruby 44 jobs
Mike S. wrote in post #971144:
Jobserve (UK) today:
Java 1154 jobs
C# 953 jobs
Ruby 44 jobs
That looks very interesting numbers. I have done some similar
investigating as well and numbers were in single figures for
Ruby/RoR/Python etc. But with C# the majority seem to want a degree of
some description, mainly the same with java.
Is there anyway to make yourself so approachable that you don’t need to
worry about this? If so then I would head in the direction of Java?
Mike S. wrote in post #971144:
Jobserve (UK) today:
Java 1154 jobs
C# 953 jobs
Ruby 44 jobs
Along those lines:
Results today (28 Dec 2010):
Since April 2009, the following has occurred:
* Scala jobs increased 306%
* Drupal jobs increased 202%
* Erlang jobs increased 144%
* Cobol jobs increased 84%
* Rails jobs increased 79%
* Ruby jobs increased 78%
* Python jobs increased 69%
* Php jobs increased 58%
* .net jobs increased 55%
* Java jobs increased 52%
I did a similar check on 9 Nov 2010 and then found:
more simplyhired stats: Drupal +138%, Scala +101%, Erlang +57%, python
+51%, ruby +50%, Cobol +32%, Java +18%, .NET +8%, php +4%, C++ -24%
(that was http://twitter.com/#!/peter_v/status/2108835443515392)
Which lead me to the conclusion that Cobol is growing faster
then Java, .Net, Ruby and Python …
But the real winner is …
From simplyhired stats: “Since March 2009, the following has occurred:
#iPad jobs increased 2,219,844%” (I tweeted that also on 9 Nov 2010).
They seem to have adapted their algorithm and now do not report
divisions by nearly zero anymore …
Din I. wrote in post #971115:
I am wondering whether to learn Ruby, as I would like to get a job after
learning.Is Ruby a dying language?
Many thanks for the answers, sorry my English isn’t that great.
You can’t “get a job” by learning a programming language. That’s like
saying “I want to build houses. Should I learn how to use a hammer?”
Yes, you should learn how to use a hammer. Also a saw and a screwdriver.
Also how to read blueprints, how to do electrical wiring, plumbing, and
many more skills.
To get a job you need to learn how to write computer programs.
Programming can be done, and usually is done, in many languages.
Typically your employer picks the language. Or languages, since most
programming tasks worth paying somebody to do require a mastery of
several different programming languages. A skilled programmer can learn
a new programming language “on the fly,” as part of the real task he’s
being paid to do. Yes, you have to start with one programming language
and Ruby is a great first programming language, but it’s just the start.
Just like learning how to hammer a nail is a place to start learning how
to build a house.
Also you’ll want to have some understanding of the kinds of math used in
computer programming as well as the ability to express yourself clearly
both verbally and in writing. And more basic skills, such as being able
to be at work when you’re expected, dress like your boss expects, etc.
By the way, my first programming languages were FORTRAN, COBOL, and
BASIC. All 3 are pretty much dead, but I learned how to write programs
and that skill has been putting food on my table for 27 years.
PEBKAC
On Wed, 29 Dec 2010, Din I. wrote:
I am wondering whether to learn Ruby, as I would like to get a job after
learning.Is Ruby a dying language?
Many thanks for the answers, sorry my English isn’t that great.
To learn Ruby, you’ll have to get a weird haircut, become a hipster and
use nothing but Apple products… 
– Matt
It’s not what I know that counts.
It’s what I can remember in time to use.
hi
i hear about 200,000 (uni-grads) apply for the 1000 java jobs
so if only a few folks apply to get the 44 ruby jobs
then if you know ruby you could get a ruby job sooner than a java job
ruby is going to be more interesting as well
Din I. [email protected] writes:
I am wondering whether to learn Ruby
Yes.
But, don’t stop there - learn as many languages as you can. There’s a
good reason that carpenters carry around a whole truckload of tools,
rather than just a claw hammer.
sherm–
I’ve taken another look at the ruby and ruby on rails jobs going in my
area, and its only about 5 jobs being advertised tops. And most of them
want other technical know-how such as java/php/css/ etc etc. Seeing
things like that make it very hard to justify the learning of something
that although it is great to code with, isn’t leading anywhere jobswise.
I should explain. I live in England at the moment and I am in the south
of the country. I would say that Winchester/Southampton/Portsmouth are
the closest cities to me regards travelling, I don’t drive you see. But
seeing a major lack of jobs for Ruby, makes me wonder about the validity
of carrying on with learning it.
Now I suppose the other route is freelance via one of the many freelance
portals?
BTW, many thanks to everyone here for their answers, I’m really humbled
and happy to hear your honest responses.
From another perspective, I read somewhere about a ruby veteran, Yehuda
Katz, I think, who said he doesn’t know any Ruby developer who isn’t
employed. Also, remember David Heinemeier H., creator of Ruby on
Rails , did that even when Ruby wasn’t this popular.
A few factors, at least, the overall market and demand, and how good a
person’s skill-sets.
On Sat, Jan 01, 2011 at 06:24:46AM +0900, Din I. wrote:
But seeing a major lack of jobs for Ruby, makes me wonder about
the validity of carrying on with learning it.
It’s very pity if one has to learn only to earn.
Another hint: one CEO friend of mine discovered that routing
people through J2EE practices and then getting them back into
Perl gets him the structure of “enterprise java” and rapidity
of a scripting language development (“P5EE” floated up, even).
Ruby is worth looking into (including decent projects’ sources)
even if one’s not going to apply the coding experience but rather
the programming one.
PS: happy New Year, and may your job bring you joy as well as cash
On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 1:24 PM, Din I. [email protected] wrote:
I’ve taken another look at the ruby and ruby on rails jobs going in my
area, and its only about 5 jobs being advertised tops.
Do you need more than one? 
I should explain. I live in England at the moment and I am in the south
of the country. I would say that Winchester/Southampton/Portsmouth are
the closest cities to me regards travelling, I don’t drive you see. But
seeing a major lack of jobs for Ruby, makes me wonder about the validity
of carrying on with learning it.
That would more accurately be “lack of jobs in my area”, eh? Have
you considered relocating to someplace with a denser tech company
presence? Even if only temporarily?
Now I suppose the other route is freelance via one of the many freelance
portals?
Or telecommuting, which is fairly common (at least in the US).
HTH, and good luck,
I don’t drive you see.
You must live in a large town, otherwise you’re well and truly stuffed.
In the South of England that means you can get on the train to London,
which is where the majority of the jobs are. But as you say, the Ruby
market is very small in the UK. I move from corporate to corporate but
I’ve never heard the name even mentioned.
I think you need to build on your current capabilities or current job.
As you’ve noticed, employers tend to ask for many many skills which
together would take years to acquire so it’s difficult to break into the
developer area just on your own initiative.
Also remember any employer can get bright Indians for not much more than
£100 per day.
I live in a small village, so yep, a little bit stuffed :o)
But many thanks again to all for your help.
I’ll carry on with my learning and see where that leads. You never know
it may lead to something great, or at least a foot in the door ?
Regards, and a great New Year All.
Hey good luck to you! Learn ruby and other unix things as well. Do it
for yourself.
Have a good year!
On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:25 PM, tim o [email protected] wrote:
hi
i hear about 200,000 (uni-grads) apply for the 1000 java jobs
so if only a few folks apply to get the 44 ruby jobs
then if you know ruby you could get a ruby job sooner than a java job
ruby is going to be more interesting as well
The latest Ruby Weekly had an article which implies this is the case:
Ideally you should learn a range of languages, that makes you a better
programmer and more attractive to employers (especially if you can give
several totally different solutions to problems in a technical
interview). One of those should be a dynamic language, and Ruby is one
of the major ones.
But I personally think Ruby is more dynamic then most others. It’s
straight forward to do some really funky stuff in Ruby that you
typically can’t do in most other dynamic languages.
But if all you want is a job, that’s it, then go learn Java.
Well, I’ve tried with Python and I don’t know why, but I just wasn’t
happy with it. Its a great language of course, and I wouldn’t want to
dissuade anyone from using it, but after looking at Ruby, I’m really
liking that instead and am happily learning it.
I’ve been looking at C, Java etc as well, and they’re on my list of
‘things to learn eventually’, but for now I like Ruby, and once I’m up
to speed on the language I’ll try and foster some interest from my area.