2008/6/21 Dolazy <francis.rammeloo / gmail.com>:
> I have only used ruby for writing little scripts. Things that are
> typically done using Perl/awk/bash...  Ruby has the potential for much
> more, but there doesn't seem to be a problem domain where it truly
> excels. Maybe Rails, but that's a bit controversial (would it carry
> large websites like Amazon or Facebook?).

Rails carries Twittr, apparently, and that's pretty huge - there are
plenty of examples of high volume Rails sites (shameless plug:
traveliq.de, is one German example). It scales better than people
generally seem to think, and it's (arguably) infinitely easier to
maintain large well-written Rails apps than those written in some
other configuration-heavy frameworks. Rails isn't perfect, but God
knows Struts aren't either.

>
> On the client side Javascript seems to be the big winner. It is the
> plugin language for Firefox, and in the future it may even become a
> standard choice for desktop software development (with Adobe Air).

Client-side ruby (in the context of the web) doesn't really make much
sense, and it's usually safest to assume that the ubiquitous
browser-embedded technology is Javascript. But conversely, despite
Netscape's hard work, server side Javascript is pretty rare.

>
> So where is ruby nowadays? For what kind of software would ruby be the
> programming language of choice?
>
>

Choice is a big word. :) Ruby would be my choice for any application
where I didn't rely on an end-user to already have it installed. This
includes server-side web apps, internal tools such as build systems,
and large user-applications where bundling a Ruby with the
distribution wouldn't seem like overkill. If you're more comfortable
in another language, then that should be your choice. Or if you can't
find a Ruby binding to a required library (and don't want to write
one), then go with a language for which such a binding exists. And if
you're writing an inter-continental ballistic missile launch
controller, just make sure you have every line of code tested.

-- 
JJ