Ruby is an open-source, interpreted, object-oriented, and high-level programming language.

What is Ruby?

Ruby is designed to offer developers ease of use without compromising its capabilities. As an object-oriented language, Ruby is open-source and free. Its dynamic structure contributes to a fast and easy development process. Although Ruby is mostly used for developing web applications, it is a general-purpose language that can be used in various fields.

Features of the Ruby Language

Ruby has a wide range of users, from large tech companies to developers working on their personal projects. This popularity is largely due to Ruby's simple yet capable structure. Some of the standout features of Ruby include:

• It is high-level and simple.
• Supports object-oriented programming.
• Acts as a server-side scripting language.
• Belongs to the class of interpreted languages.
• Has a dynamic type system.
• Supports functional programming.
• Can be used within HTML.
• Possesses libraries called gems.
• Is open-source and free.
• Cross-platform; it can be used on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Advantages of Ruby

The features of Ruby make its use advantageous. Some of the benefits provided by the Ruby language include:

• It is easy to learn. It has a syntax close to natural language.
• Ruby allows you to do more with less code.
• It notably aids in quickly developing web applications, especially with Ruby on Rails.
• Being open-source, it has a broad user community. There are numerous tutorials available about Ruby and its libraries, known as gems.

Where is Ruby Used?

Ruby has a broad application in web development. The Ruby language and Jekyll, which is developed with Ruby, are commonly used to create static web pages. Ruby can be used from simple blogs to complex web applications with Ruby on Rails. Ruby is also a choice for developing web servers. Web servers like Unicorn and Passenger are developed with Ruby. Additionally, it can be used for purposes like data processing and web scraping.

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is a web development framework developed for the Ruby language. It has played a significant role in increasing Ruby's popularity. Using MVC architecture, Ruby on Rails facilitates database management, web services, and web page creation.

The first version of Ruby On Rails was released in 2005 and is still actively developed today. With its features, Ruby Rails has inspired many frameworks in different languages and is used by companies like Twitch, Github, and Shopify.

History of the Ruby Language

Ruby was developed by Yukihiro Matsumoto in the mid-90s. The Ruby project, which Matsumoto started working on in 1995, emerged from a search for a language as simple as Perl but as capable and object-oriented as Python.

Matsumoto chose the name Ruby from the proposed names Ruby and Coral. The first public version of Ruby, Ruby 0.95, was released in 1995. With its object-oriented structure among other capabilities, Ruby became more popular than Python in Japan during the 2000s. This period also coincides with Ruby gaining worldwide recognition.

The popularity of Ruby increased further with the release of the web development framework Ruby On Rails in 2015. Ruby's 2.0 version was launched in 2013, while the most current major version, Ruby 3.0, was released in 2020.