This was thanks to Rubys friendly community and, in no small part, thanks to Matz.
(The community has a motto, Matz is nice, and so we are nice.)
While all three languages have myriad other uses, timing and external factors often propelled them into broader popularity.
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Sometimes, Ruby on Rails feels like a blessing and a curse for Ruby itself.
To many developers, they are one and the same thing.
Rails events typically have more attendees.
Many of the recent features and changes in Ruby came upstream from Rails.
This shows that many developers using it are at a senior level and largely know what theyre doing.
The community was friendly and welcoming but full of references and name drops that meant nothing to me.
The next 30 years
But enough of the distant past.
While not primarily designed for running as a compiled language, other options make it possible with Ruby.
Since 2022, Ruby has been able to compile to WASM.
If youve used Mastodon in the online window, its a Ruby on Rails tool running as WASM.
In recent years, microservices has become the more popular architectural design, at least in an ideal world.
These include asynchronous and threaded code, allowing applications to communicate simultaneously with other applications and services.
Many modern languages support these features, but Rubys syntax is simpler than JavaScript.
Elixir is more optimised for high concurrency and low latency, making it well-suited for finance and telecommunications industries.
Crystal, created ten years ago, also has members of the Ruby community as maintainers.
I was blown away.
I played with Ruby for a day.
I played with it the next day.
And why does Thomas continue to use Ruby 30 years later?
Ruby lets you find ways to express yourself without dictating too much.
it’s possible for you to experiment with nice ways to express things, not just one way.
The Ruby community follows a different approach, providing gently opinionated tools to let you find your own way.
Because of this strange combination, its divisive.
Some say it was the only book they ever learned programming from.
Others find it an utterly confounding and confusing mess.
Still, its unique style and mysterious author also increased interest in the language during its nascent days.
Story byChris Chinchilla
Technology writer, podcaster, and video maker by day.
Fiction, games, and music by night.
chrischinchilla.comTechnology writer, podcaster, and video maker by day.
Fiction, games, and music by night.
