Ruby (programming language)

Yukihiro Matsumoto

Ruby is a dynamic programming language that focuses on simplicity and productivity. It has an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write. Created by Yukihiro Matsumoto in Japan in the mid-1990s, Ruby supports multiple programming paradigms, including procedural programming, object-oriented programming (OOP), and functional programming. Its use in web development was popularized by the Ruby on Rails framework, which is based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture.

History

Ruby was conceived on February 24, 1993, by Yukihiro Matsumoto, with the goal of creating a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming. Matsumoto sought to form a language that was more powerful than Perl, and more object-oriented than Python. The first public release of Ruby 0.95 was announced on Japanese domestic newsgroups in December 1995. Ruby has since evolved, with Version 2.0 being released in February 2013, introducing several new features including keyword arguments, Module#prepend, and a new garbage collection algorithm.

Features

Ruby's syntax is designed to be intuitive and readable. It borrows heavily from Perl, Ada, Lisp, and Smalltalk. Key features include:

• Dynamic Typing: Ruby is dynamically typed, meaning that variable types are not explicitly declared and can change at runtime.
• Automatic Memory Management: Ruby uses a garbage collector to manage memory usage automatically.
• Everything is an Object: In Ruby, every piece of data and code can be treated as an object, with its own properties and methods.
• Blocks and Iterators: Ruby has powerful support for blocks (anonymous functions) and iterators, which simplify the process of iterating over collections.
• Metaprogramming: Ruby's metaprogramming capabilities allow programs to alter their behavior at runtime or even modify the structure of the language itself.
• Exception Handling: Ruby includes comprehensive support for exception handling, making it easier to manage errors and unexpected events in a program.

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails, often simply Rails, is a web application framework written in Ruby. It is designed to make programming web applications easier by making assumptions about what every developer needs to get started. It allows you to write less code while accomplishing more than many other languages and frameworks. Rails emphasizes the use of well-known software engineering patterns and principles, such as Active Record Pattern, Convention over Configuration (CoC), and Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY).

Community and Development

The Ruby community is known for its friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Annual conferences such as RubyConf and RailsConf, along with regional events, foster a sense of community among developers. The development of Ruby is managed by the Ruby Core Team, with contributions from programmers around the world. Ruby's vibrant community contributes to its rich ecosystem of gems, which are libraries that extend the functionality of Ruby applications.

Examples of Ruby Code

Here is a simple example of Ruby code that prints "Hello, World!":

```ruby puts 'Hello, World!' ```

This example demonstrates Ruby's straightforward syntax. The `puts` method prints the string to the console.

See Also

• Programming Language
• Software Development
• Web Application Framework

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