Table of contents
1.
Introduction
1.1.
What is Ruby
2.
History of Ruby
3.
About Ruby's Growth
4.
Frequently Asked Questions
4.1.
Why the name 'Ruby'?
4.2.
What is Ruby?
4.3.
Who is the developer of Ruby?
4.4.
What makes Ruby a flexible programming language?
5.
Conclusion
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024

History of Ruby

Author Sanchit Kumar
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Introduction

The article discusses and explores Ruby, the History of Ruby, who created it and its evolution, and how it gained recognition in the programming world and eventually became widespread, primarily because of the Ruby on Rails web application development framework. 

Ruby is a dynamic, open-source programming language that is free to use, copy, change, and distribute, focusing on productivity and simplicity. It features a simple and elegant syntax with some flexibility that is easy to read and write.

What is Ruby

Ruby is a high-level interpreted programming language that supports many programming paradigms. It was designed with programming productivity and ease of usage in mind. Its syntax is similar to that of many other programming languages, including C and Java, making learning easy for Java and C programmers. It can run efficiently on various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

History of Ruby

In 1993, Yukihiro Matsumoto created Ruby in Japan. Yukihiro Matsumoto is better known as Matz in the Ruby world. It was made with the thought that programming should be enjoyable for programmers in minds. It underlines the importance of software being understood first by humans and then by computers.

Yukihiro Matsumoto desired an object-oriented programming language that could also be used for scripting. As a result, he created the Ruby programming language. Yukihiro Matsumoto and Keiju Ishitshuka discussed two names for the programming language: "Coral" and "Ruby." Later, Yukihiro Matsumoto chose "Ruby" since ruby was the birthstone of one of his colleagues.

Ruby is a carefully balanced language. Matz combined elements of his favourite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to create a new language that balanced functional and imperative programming. In a way that mirrors life, he has often stated that he is "trying to make Ruby natural, not simple."

Ruby soon established a following in Matz's native country of Japan during the next few years, and in the year 2000, it was recognised by the rest of the programming world.

Ruby's popularity in web application development continues to grow. Many people were introduced to Ruby by David Heinemeier Hansson's Ruby on Rails framework, which he created with the Ruby language. Ruby has a thriving community that is welcoming to newcomers and dedicated to delivering high-quality code.

About Ruby's Growth

Ruby has attracted committed coders worldwide since its first release in 1995. Ruby gained widespread acceptance in 2006. Active user groups have been established in major cities worldwide, and Ruby-related conferences are filled to capacity.

In 2006, Ruby-Talk, the principal mailing list for Ruby language discussion, received an average of 200 messages daily. It has declined in recent years as the community's expansion has moved the conversation away from one core list and into a slew of smaller groups.

Most of the indexes that track the growth and popularity of programming languages around the world place Ruby in the top ten (such as the TIOBE index). The popularity of Ruby-based software is responsible for much of the growth, particularly the Ruby on Rails web framework.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why the name 'Ruby'?

Influenced by the name Perl in The Perl Programming Language, Matz wanted to use a jewel name for his new language, so he named Ruby after a colleague's birthstone.

What is Ruby?

Ruby is a high-level interpreted programming language that supports a wide range of programming paradigms. It was designed with programming productivity and ease of usage in mind.

Who is the developer of Ruby?

In 1993, Yukihiro Matsumoto created Ruby in Japan. It was made with the thought that programming should be enjoyable for programmers in minds.

What makes Ruby a flexible programming language?

Ruby is a flexible language since it allows users to modify its components freely. Ruby's core components can be deleted or redefined at any time. Existing components can be enhanced. Ruby makes every effort to keep the coder's freedom.

The plus (+) operator, for example, is used to execute addition. However, if you prefer to use the more readable word plus, you may add a method to Ruby's Numeric class.

Conclusion

This article extensively discussed the History of Ruby. We started with a brief introduction about what is Ruby and then explored its History by knowing about its creator, when and where he created it, and what was the idea behind its creation.

After reading about the history of Ruby, are you not feeling excited to read/explore more articles on the topics related to Ruby and other programming languages like Python? Don't worry; Coding Ninjas has you covered. To learn, see 8 reasons why Ruby should be your first languageDocumentation of RubyPython,and Ruby vs Python.

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