# Why Ruby? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 25, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390 "2007-07-25T23:47:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 11:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/1 "2007-07-25T23:47:16Z")
Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? ---
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/2 "2007-07-25T23:53:58Z")
On Jul 25, 2007, at 4:44 PM, al\_batuul wrote: > Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? > **[Ruby-Doc.org: Documenting the Ruby Language](https://ruby-doc.org/whyruby/)** > > Fast, searchable Ruby documentation for core and standard libraries. Plus, links to tutorials, guides, books, and related sites. ---
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/3 "2007-07-26T00:00:41Z")
al\_batuul wrote: > Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? That’s a very broad question with many, many answers. It might be easier for the list members to respond if you narrow down your question a bit and explain what you already know about Ruby and “other languages”. Also, have you looked at the links on [www.ruby-lang.org](http://www.ruby-lang.org)? There’s a lot of good information on that site. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/4 "2007-07-26T00:01:47Z")
al\_batuul wrote: > Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? > **[Ruby-Doc.org: Documenting the Ruby Language](https://ruby-doc.org/whyruby/)** > > Fast, searchable Ruby documentation for core and standard libraries. Plus, links to tutorials, guides, books, and related sites. – James B. “Inside every large system there’s a small system trying to get out”. - Chet Hendrickson ---
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/5 "2007-07-26T00:02:58Z")
On Jul 25, 2007, at 5:44 PM, al\_batuul wrote: > Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? Well, many reasons! First off, Ruby is object oriented, while at the same time allowing for simple scripts. This means you can use the right tool for the job. Second, well, second is better represented as a list: * * * • Everything is an object. You can call 10.abs to get the absolute value of the instance method ‘10’ of Integer, while java calls Math.abs(10). • General purpose: You can use it for anything, ranging from physics, biology, viruses ([http://vx.netlux.org/lib/vsp20.html](http://vx.netlux.org/lib/vsp20.html)), to databasing and web development. • Extensive libraries - just check out RAA, rubyforge, and rubygems and you’ll see. • Microsoft (hisss) is coming out with a compiler, IronRuby (yaay!) • Pretty new in America, and already it’s got stable spot in the market. • Incredibly active community (mailing lists, IRC, etc) And I feel that Ruby has just the right combination of words and symbols. In ruby you can do: if string =~ /awesome/ while in java you have to use: if (string.equals(“awesome”)) ruby is NOT ugly! HTH -------------------------------------------------------| ~ Ari crap my sig won’t fit ---
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/6 "2007-07-26T08:35:03Z")
On 7/26/07, al\_batuul [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? It’s Lisp for the masses. [http://stormwyrm.blogspot.com/2004/12/why-ruby.html](http://stormwyrm.blogspot.com/2004/12/why-ruby.html) [http://stormwyrm.blogspot.com/2005/10/why-ruby-redux.html](http://stormwyrm.blogspot.com/2005/10/why-ruby-redux.html) ---
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 9:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/7 "2007-07-26T09:05:08Z")
Hi, Am Donnerstag, 26. Jul 2007, 06:44:59 +0900 schrieb al\_batuul: > Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? Do some small task in Ruby and in any other language … Bertram ---
**Author:** ![al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@al\_batuul](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/al_batuul)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 3:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-ruby/110390/8 "2007-07-26T03:50:42Z")
On Jul 25, 5:52 pm, Lyle J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On Jul 25, 2007, at 4:44 PM, al\_batuul wrote: > > > Could any body explain what distinguishes Ruby from other languages? > > [Ruby-Doc.org: Documenting the Ruby Language](http://www.ruby-doc.org/whyruby) Out of a small handful of languages I’ve worked with I can say the following: 1. Ruby is _fun_ to work with. Most of the time it doesn’t seem like work. 2. Ruby code is easier to read, at least per the way my brain operates. 3. The Ruby community is active and helpful. Despite Ruby’s gaining popularity the newsgroups, forums, mailing lists, etc. aren’t chock full of snyde replies to newbie questions. The downsides I see compared to other languages are: 1. Looking for a large set of libraries involves skulking around outside of the standard distro. Most libraries you are looking for are available, but it takes some hunting and guessing. Not all libraries are well documented and some docs aren’t available in English. This is improving as of late, however. 2. Ruby is still heavily slanted toward Linux-based platforms. Windows compatability is largely a non-issue, but in specific cases I was left in the lurch targeting Windows clients. 3. The killer IDE (ala Visual Studio) is still a work in progress. Although Sapphire in Steel is admirable for pure built-in GUI development you can’t yet find anything as straightforward as dragging and dropping Visual Studio controls. Porting stuff back and forth using Glade or Qt Designer is an option, but not as clean as what I’ve experienced using things like Visual Studio or various Smalltalk offerings. The key point to all of this to me is Ruby is _fun_ and makes sense in the way my brain works. Most of the time I can intuitively figure out how to use a particular API. Makes it nice. Less time digging around docs and less time coding since there’s less syntactical hoops. Check it out. You won’t be sorry!