Preston Crawford wrote: > I'm an outsider to the Ruby community. I've used it a time or two, > mostly to get familiar with it. I've read part of the PickAxe, but my > job (Java) keeps me in Java-land. I'm wondering what those of you using > Ruby feel are Ruby's chances of taking off. At least to the extent that > you could begin to see it used in places where J2EE is being used > currently. I know this is already happening. But my question is more > with regards to the future. Is something like RoR worth learning in the > context of being able to actually put it to use in the future? We are in development for a multi-million dollar system for a Fortune 1000 company. The backend of this system will utilize RoR heavily. The system utilizes a front-end java client, but we scrapped all J2EE / Hibernate plans for the backend when we did a small test between different backend solutions. The test was a small backend with web-functionality, database mapping, data processing, etc... with different Java solutions (standalone JSP/Hibernate), (standalone JSP/Java-Mysql adapter), (JBoss,J2EE/Hibernate/Tomcat) and then we tried Rails. The results were that in the days in took to complete the tests in Java, it took under a few hours with Ruby On Rails. From that point on we have been moving forward with Ruby, and Ruby on Rails. We will be moving into benchmarking and optimization in the next 2-4 weeks, I can keep the ML posted with benchmarks. > I know > I'm asking for conjecture. And that's all I expect. But not being > actively involved in the community, I get no sense as to how much > momentum Ruby has, and thus what the chances of it becoming more > commonly used, are. At work I'm in a lucky position to pick the technology that works for our company and our customers. I have been using ruby for the past 2 years almost. I have used ruby for lots of odds and ends things during that time. As I get more verbosed in ruby as a language I find that I can do more and more things with ruby. I now... - use Ruby On Rails for internal web site development and customer web-site development - use ActiveRecord for database mapping even when no web interface is involved. This is a huge time saver! - use net/ssh to handle automating remote administration tasks for me - use win32ole to access the WScript (Windows Script Host) object model - use wxRuby to write timer/reminder programs for myself which alert me in 15 minutes before a meeting, appointment, etc... - used the socket library to write a customer's messenging system which will be used to allow multiple servers inside of an environment to communicate with one another with hardly any overhead. - use IRB sooo much, well IRB is the best tool in the world. There is no ther like it! - used JRuby to communicate ruby code to Java applications - write commandline utilities suite for 4D WebSTAR (Mac OSX Application) - use rubyscript2exe to make clickable installers, uninstallers, and applications And the list keeps going. Ruby is my #1 tool of choice. As I continue to verse myself in Ruby and it's uses I will continue to see different arena's where I can use Ruby. This grows almost everyday. Ruby is also a big time saver for me. I can write ruby code faster then any other language. Coworkers, employees and my boss have been pleased and surprised with the turnaround time I have for getting things done. Am I the best programmer in the world? Probably not (dont tell my employees that =), but I know how and when to use Ruby. 75% of our small development team now uses ruby on a daily basis, by choice. =) You can only learn to make good decisions about when and how to use Ruby, by using Ruby. > > I know Java has a head start and has the backing of many large > corporations, so it's perhaps not an apt comparison to make. Java is good for certain things. Java is not good for everything. Ruby is the same way. I just find that where these overlap Ruby usually wins the war! And yes this is even considering Eclipse and Intellityping! > But I like And I like the philosophy of Ruby. > the language. Me to. =) > To what extent this is > translating into projects and jobs, however, I have no idea. I have no idea on this either. A year ago I was the only person I knew or could find in a 600,000 people city who knew what Ruby was. In the past 2 months I have found 10 people who know Ruby, plus a company which is know dictating Ruby On Rails as a doctrinal belief to it's employees, and that company is not the one I am at. Ruby is growing, people using ruby are what make ruby grow. As ruby usage and awareness grows it will provide itself with an environment which will allow itself to strengthen it's presence as a viable tool and that will allow it's community of users to survive throughout the fiscal year. The only thing that will stop Ruby from growing is if people don't use ruby. If you use ruby, that is a +1 chance that Ruby will be used at a company; small, medium, large or huge later this year. Zach