Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented programming language designed for programmer happiness. Created by Yukihiro Matsumoto in Japan, it emphasizes human-readable code and elegant expression.
Philosophy
Matsumoto designed Ruby around the principle of programmer happiness:
- Principle of Least Surprise: Behavior should match expectations
- Everything is an object: Pure object-orientation like Smalltalk
- Multiple ways to do things: Unlike Python’s “one obvious way”
- Beautiful code: Aesthetics matter
Key Features
Ruby incorporates ideas from multiple languages:
- Blocks and iterators: Elegant collection processing
- Mixins: Share code without inheritance complications
- Open classes: Modify any class at runtime
- Metaprogramming: Write code that writes code
- Duck typing: Focus on what objects can do, not what they are
Ruby on Rails
Ruby’s explosive growth came with Ruby on Rails in 2004. DHH’s web framework demonstrated Ruby’s metaprogramming power and attracted a passionate community. Rails popularized conventions like MVC and REST for web development.
Impact
Ruby influenced modern programming:
- Proved that developer happiness matters
- Showed metaprogramming’s practical power
- Rails became a template for web frameworks in other languages
- Inspired features in Python, JavaScript, and other languages