Sure ruby has a future.

It is now better than 10 years ago and people used it 10 years ago too.

I also hope that matz continues to stay active, his vision still guides
ruby forward even though there are now other ruby-implementations out
there (Go, Rubinius, go!)

I myself do not use rails. I used Ruby before Rails existed too.

Rails got a lot of attraction and hype to ruby, but it is a completely
separate community. I am not part of it in any way and to me it makes no
difference whatsoever whether rails exists or not. I don't mean this in
a bad way either, it just does not matter to me at all. :)

Python became more popular than Ruby but I think this had to do with the
fact that Ruby really had CRAPPY documentation for a long time. Without
the Pickaxe, I am still wondering whether ruby could have been used
outside Japan at all ...

I myself don't really see Python as an enemy to Ruby. Both ruby and
python are very similar in many things, though there are plenty of
differences too, mostly in the philosophy. I prefer ruby's philosophy (I
started using ruby after trying it out, having read an interview with
matz - great interview by the way!)

What I am seeing since some months though is that Javascript is becoming
insanely popular. That is not only to jquery alone ...

I think ultimately Javascript is becoming so popular because of the
importance of WWW.

I myself really don't like Javascript too much. I think it is a mistake
to use so many different languages ... the WWW has become so much more
complex than 10 years ago.... :(

Javascript has an unfair advantage too. Every browser defaults to it...

I'd rather use Ruby and show Javascript the middle finger.

Or even better, I would like to use Ruby EVERYWHERE for me here when I
can - I want to target my browser without Javascript.... or I dream of a
VM where any language is possible. And I would stick to Ruby.

Unfortunately that is just wishful thinking.

Javascript is there to stay ...

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