A concise description of Ruby?

ruby-talk
1

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II
book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

Unfortunately, I really blew the opportunity as I attempted to come up with
a brilliant one or two sentence description. The best I could muster was
something like, "Uhh... err... it's kind of like perl or python but much
better." How lame is that!

To avoid this in the future, I would a like to have a stock reply ready to
go. A few short sentences that clearly crystallize what Ruby is and why the
asker should care. Once I make it past this introduction (in situations
where there is time and its appropriate) I can talk endlessly in-depth about
Ruby. But I want to be able to make that good first impression without
tripping all over myself... An impression good enough to make them want to
know more.

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Thanks,
Curt

PS
  I'll collect the responses and post them on the WhyRuby? site
(http://whyruby.rubyforge.org).

2

I tell coworkers - "It's the language that'll let you like programming again."

-RIch

···

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 21:47:47 +0900, Curt Hibbs <curt@hibbs.com> wrote:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II
book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

Unfortunately, I really blew the opportunity as I attempted to come up with
a brilliant one or two sentence description. The best I could muster was
something like, "Uhh... err... it's kind of like perl or python but much
better." How lame is that!

To avoid this in the future, I would a like to have a stock reply ready to
go. A few short sentences that clearly crystallize what Ruby is and why the
asker should care. Once I make it past this introduction (in situations
where there is time and its appropriate) I can talk endlessly in-depth about
Ruby. But I want to be able to make that good first impression without
tripping all over myself... An impression good enough to make them want to
know more.

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Thanks,
Curt

PS
  I'll collect the responses and post them on the WhyRuby? site
(http://whyruby.rubyforge.org).

3

Curt Hibbs wrote:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II
book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

Unfortunately, I really blew the opportunity as I attempted to come up with
a brilliant one or two sentence description. The best I could muster was
something like, "Uhh... err... it's kind of like perl or python but much
better." How lame is that!

To avoid this in the future, I would a like to have a stock reply ready to
go. A few short sentences that clearly crystallize what Ruby is and why the
asker should care. Once I make it past this introduction (in situations
where there is time and its appropriate) I can talk endlessly in-depth about
Ruby. But I want to be able to make that good first impression without
tripping all over myself... An impression good enough to make them want to
know more.

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Ruby is a language where code is used to make Objects communicate. This gives you all the benefits of clearly defined components and the power to change the messages Objects respond to and communicate by themselves.

You can also jump into your Object environment and start talking to Objects. This makes debugging surprisingly simple and other things possible.

Thanks,
Curt

Hope this helps any, but I think there will be better definitions than mine.

Regards,
Florian Gross

4

Curt Hibbs ha scritto:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II
book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

it's an OO dynamic language with simple syntax. It is fun oriented.
I love ruby.

(remember that in the "I love #$somelanguage" google battles ruby always win, spread the meme :wink:

5

I knew that one day someone would ask :wink:

  http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?WhatIsRuby

The link to Wikipedia entry at the end is good too.

T.

P.S. This is a rip from Hal (thanks Hal!) but if anyone would like to work on
it then please do!

···

On Wednesday 20 October 2004 08:47 am, Curt Hibbs wrote:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe
II book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

Unfortunately, I really blew the opportunity as I attempted to come up with
a brilliant one or two sentence description. The best I could muster was
something like, "Uhh... err... it's kind of like perl or python but much
better." How lame is that!

To avoid this in the future, I would a like to have a stock reply ready to
go. A few short sentences that clearly crystallize what Ruby is and why the
asker should care. Once I make it past this introduction (in situations
where there is time and its appropriate) I can talk endlessly in-depth
about Ruby. But I want to be able to make that good first impression
without tripping all over myself... An impression good enough to make them
want to know more.

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Thanks,
Curt

PS
  I'll collect the responses and post them on the WhyRuby? site
(http://whyruby.rubyforge.org).

6

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

i tell people - "it's the kind of language that makes you feel sexy.
sexy if you find thinking sexy because it's easy to think in. thinking in Java
is boring. thinking in ruby makes you drool."

···

--
edwin eyan moragas

ha... a... k... tu!

7

Ruby is a very object oriented language with a super clean syntax that makes programming elegant and enjoyable.

James Edward Gray II

···

On Oct 20, 2004, at 7:47 AM, Curt Hibbs wrote:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

8

Curt Hibbs wrote:

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Ruby is the programming language that makes you have more time for your girlfriend .. or less, if you fall in love with ruby instead.

Jan

9

[snip]

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Ruby allows to you enhance the builtin string class with you own methods,
which you can invoke "im a string".own_method

Thats the sentence I use most.
I don't know if there are other languages that allow for this?

···

On Wednesday 20 October 2004 14:47, Curt Hibbs wrote:

--
Simon Strandgaard

10

Curt Hibbs wrote:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II
book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

Unfortunately, I really blew the opportunity as I attempted to come up with
a brilliant one or two sentence description. The best I could muster was
something like, "Uhh... err... it's kind of like perl or python but much
better." How lame is that!

To avoid this in the future, I would a like to have a stock reply ready to
go. A few short sentences that clearly crystallize what Ruby is and why the
asker should care. Once I make it past this introduction (in situations
where there is time and its appropriate) I can talk endlessly in-depth about
Ruby. But I want to be able to make that good first impression without
tripping all over myself... An impression good enough to make them want to
know more.

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Thanks,
Curt

PS
  I'll collect the responses and post them on the WhyRuby? site
(http://whyruby.rubyforge.org).

You're looking for a ruby "elevator speech"!

Ruby is an elegant language in which it's easy and natural to express solutions. It's simple enough that a beginner can start using it immediately, yet powerful enough to deal with sophisticated needs. It's so fun that the Puritans would have banned it had they known about it.

11

* Curt Hibbs <curt@hibbs.com> [1047 13:47]:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II
book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

Unfortunately, I really blew the opportunity as I attempted to come up with
a brilliant one or two sentence description. The best I could muster was
something like, "Uhh... err... it's kind of like perl or python but much
better." How lame is that!

To avoid this in the future, I would a like to have a stock reply ready to
go. A few short sentences that clearly crystallize what Ruby is and why the
asker should care. Once I make it past this introduction (in situations
where there is time and its appropriate) I can talk endlessly in-depth about
Ruby. But I want to be able to make that good first impression without
tripping all over myself... An impression good enough to make them want to
know more.

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

I usually go for "First rule of Ruby Club - you do not talk about Ruby Club"
- it's politer than 'what, Google down, is it?'.

···

--
And if you think you're going to bleed all over me
you're even wronger than you normally be - The Specials, 'Little Bitch'
Rasputin :: Jack of All Trades - Master of Nuns

12

"Curt Hibbs" <curt@hibbs.com> wrote in message news:<EAENKKNOJPMNCDMLDOMLAEKBGHAA.curt@hibbs.com>...

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

My standard answer is "It's the third item in the set 'Perl, Python, and Ruby'".

13

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

I say "A language that's like the best parts of Smalltalk, Perl and
Lisp, all in one, and no line noise, parentheses or weird VM"

--Ari

14

Curt Hibbs wrote:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new
pickaxe II book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

Unfortunately, I really blew the opportunity as I attempted to come up with a brilliant one or two sentence description. The best I could
muster was something like, "Uhh... err... it's kind of like perl or
python but much better." How lame is that!

I think it makes little sense to address the question "What is Ruby?"
but rather to answer the truely intended one: "Is there any good reason
to switch to Ruby?". I am confident that your co-worker had the latter
question in mind but simply didn't find the right words.

Do not expect me to give a one-and-for-all objective answer. If you want
to actually convice someone of the advantages of something your private
and subjective answers are what matter. Why?

You surely know that these answers actually made somebody (you) use
Ruby. They also are the reason why you think that others should follow
the same path.

I cannot speak for you or for anybody else using Ruby but I can answer
the question why *I* use Ruby. It

- is easy and fun to learn and use

- strongly encourages structured, expressive and readable code

- makes object-orientation a natural approach of solving problems

- replaces fighting against shortcomings of the language by solving the
   problem at hand

- is highly addictive: once you tried it you cannot imagine life without

The last point is important to me: In the old days I started with Basic.
Then came Turbo Pascal, a small COBOL intermezzo, some machine language,
C, C++, Perl, Kornshell, some Java and finally C#.

While none of the languages made me feel at home, C# at least made me
feel welcome. Then I met Ruby and immediately was sure that this was
love at first sight, that this was the one to share life with.

One language I didn't mention so far is Python. People had told me that
they loved Python and what they said about it sounded promising. So I
dated with Python. She was cute and very smart - it is not surprising to
me that she has so many admirers. Nevertheless it turned out that we are
much to different to become a couple.

Don't think that I have gone made because I talk about 'loving' a
programming language. If you have a choice you will share your time with
people you love or at least like, not with people about which others say
one should share one's time with. Why should one then want to share
one's time with a programming language one doesn't really like? Just
because people say that it is cool to do so?

Josef 'Jupp' Schugt

15

Ruby: The powerful and dynamic object-oriented language which "makes programming fun again".

The first part of that description is taken from and article by Matz and the second part is taken from an article by Dave Thomas. So, basically I didn't come up with any of it.

-Charlie

···

On Oct 20, 2004, at 7:04 AM, gabriele renzi wrote:

Curt Hibbs ha scritto:

Yesterday, a co-worker came into my office and saw the shiny, new pickaxe II
book on my desk and said "What is Ruby?"

it's an OO dynamic language with simple syntax. It is fun oriented.
I love ruby.

(remember that in the "I love #$somelanguage" google battles ruby always win, spread the meme :wink:

16

trans. (T. Onoma) wrote:

I knew that one day someone would ask :wink:

  http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?WhatIsRuby

The link to Wikipedia entry at the end is good too.

T.

P.S. This is a rip from Hal (thanks Hal!) but if anyone would like to work on it then please do!

Actually, you can just attribute the comp.lang.ruby FAQ -- I maintain
it now, but the above fragment was written by Conrad Schneiker.

Or attribute him if you wish, but he doesn't hang out here any more.

Hal

17

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

"Ruby? Oh, you won't like this language. (Slides Pixaxe II out of view.) It's entirely too fun and productive for most people."

:slight_smile:

Mike

18

I like most of the suggestions so far.

I don't have a profound definition myself, though when I try to describe the language I prefer to avoid mentioning "scripting" (favoring "interpreted") or comparisons to other languages.

For the latter, I'm not versed enough in Smalltalk, Python, or whatever else gets tossed in to some algebraic Ruby description to give any follow-up detail. And I've heard people say, "If it's so much like X, why not just use X?"

Although the phrase has been glommed by Python fans, I believe it more appropriate to say that Ruby is almost like executable pseudo-code[*]. There is very little extraneous syntax to interfere with simply expressing what you want to do.

It's a language designed for people, not processors.

James

[*] Show of hands: How many people write "__self__" as a routine part of of their pseudo code?

19

Simon Strandgaard wrote:

···

On Wednesday 20 October 2004 14:47, Curt Hibbs wrote:
[snip]

So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
"What is Ruby"?

Ruby allows to you enhance the builtin string class with you own methods,
which you can invoke "im a string".own_method

Thats the sentence I use most.
I don't know if there are other languages that allow for this?

JavaScript.

Really.

"JavaScript: It's sweeter than you think."

James

20

> So, I wanted to ask all of you, what would your answer be to the question
> "What is Ruby"?

Ruby allows to you enhance the builtin string class with you own methods,
which you can invoke "im a string".own_method

I'm not sure that's such a good advertisement: it still seems very hackish
to me to do that. Singleton methods on an object, now that's something else:
you can enhance the object, without affecting the entire class String.

I've been trying to maintain someone else's Perl code over the last few
days, and although it was written using OO features, making changes has had
me pulling my hair out. For example, when I want to define another class, I
am *forced* to put it in a separate file, with about a screenful of module
declarations at the top; and then stick $self-> in front of every method
call, and dereference pointers all over the place. Yuk - might as well have
been writing in C.

When people ask me about Ruby, I say Ruby is like Perl without the crap. You
can typically write working code in Ruby which is a quarter of the size of
the equivalent Perl, and much easier to understand and maintain. It's a
rapid application development tool for real applications, rather than just
temporary hacks, and yet it doesn't stop you writing quick hacks either.

Then, if they're a Perl hacker, some them some code. They'll be drooling in
minutes...

Regards,

Brian.