Why you should learn Ruby regardless of what they say
Learn a language which actually loves you back – Siddharth Sharma
Over the years I have learned multiple programming languages. At the start of my career I learned FoxPro, then PHP, then old school way of writing Javascript, then some point of time I got introduced to Ruby and even after that I went ahead to learn Swift, then back to PHP (this time it was 7.x). I have even experienced every end of the Javascript spectrum from Nodejs, jQuery, Backbone, Coffeescript to React, Vue, Webpack. And yet, I still come back to Ruby for its expressiveness, ecosystem, community, ability to do things which otherwise would have taken 10x time in other languages.
This post is not for defaming other languages but to highlight the underlying power of Ruby & why you should embrace it.
Simplicity
Ruby is designed keeping simplicity at its core fundamental value. You will realize this as soon as you start learning it. You will experience everything about the language is well thought-out and meticulously designed to help you progress towards your goal instead of absorbing you in the quirks.
Expressiveness
Just reading the code snippet above I bet one can understand what the code is trying to achieve. Now imagine, Teaching this syntax to someone coming from a different background than computer science. Picking up syntax like this is so easy & intuitive. Rather than introducing these folks who want to learn code to a language whose syntax looks gibberish, it would be a great relief to them they try to learn something which makes sense from day 1.
Besides, even as a veteran programmer I want to work with a language which talks to me & my team instead of using my brain as a parser when I read code.
Ecosystem
I’m part of multiple language ecosystem at the moment. I can wholeheartedly say – Ruby ecosystem is one the most mature & powerful of them. You will find an amazing set of plugins, insightful blog posts, explainer videos etc. helping you on every step of the way. Someone already had a problem which you’re facing right now and they were generous enough in documenting the solution or guide for others. The entire ecosystem is a reassure of you not being alone in this journey.
Perfect Candidate For Introductory Programming Language
If you or someone you know who wants to learn to code, please do everyone a favour and let it be Ruby. I’m a self-taught & I have taught Ruby to multiple folks. Ruby by nature is a very simple language to learn. It provides the right building blocks for anyone who desires to acquire programming mindset.
What about languages like Rust, Golang etc.?
With my experience, I can say Ruby is fit to solve most of the use cases. However, It would be unfair to say it is a good fit for every use case. Golang, Rust, Elixir are beautiful languages themselves & they serve a purpose. If you’re building an operating system, a high-performance web server or a real-time communication platform then, by all means, go ahead. Moreover, if you have unusual requirements, or, you simply want to master a particular language for different career prospects then be my guest.
Having said that, the majority of us want to write software to solve general level problems, improve productivity, empower businesses, automate tasks etc.
Success Stories
There are significant success stories of companies of all sizes who placed their bet on the language which paid off well. Here are some names for context
🦄Unicorns
💵Bootstrapped
That's why languages like #Ruby are going to be so popular in the future as it reads very similar to English.
— Chris Oliver (@excid3) September 22, 2019
if you would like me to share some resources with you on how to get started with Ruby then reach out to me on Twitter/Email.