The Ruby Programming Language | The Ruby Programming Language | InformIT The Ruby Programming Language + Share This Page 1 of 6 Next > You've heard of Perl, but Ruby? This new language from Japan is quickly gaining interest. Here, Ruby's creator, Yukihiro Matsumoto, tells you why Perl and Python just aren't good enough. Learn More Buy Ruby is a powerful and dynamic open source, object-oriented language that I began developing in 1993. Ruby runs on many platforms, including Linux and many flavors of UNIX, MS-DOS, Windows 9x/2000/NT, BeOS, and MacOS X. Ruby's primary focus is productivity of program development, and users will find that programming in Ruby is productive and even fun. Ruby is well suited for the problem domains such as these: Text processing—Ruby's File, String, and Regexp classes help you process text data quickly and cleanly. CGI programming—Ruby has everything you need to do CGI programming, including text-handling classes, a CGI library, database interface, and even eRuby (embedded Ruby) and mod_ruby for Apache. Network programming—Network programming can be fun with Ruby's well-designed socket classes.

GUI programming—GUI tool kit interfaces such as Ruby/Tk and Ruby/Gtk are available. XML programming—Text-handling features and the UTF-8-aware regular expression engine make XML programming handy in Ruby. The interface to the expat XML parser library is also available. Prototyping—With its high productivity, Ruby is often used to make prototypes. Prototypes sometimes become production systems by replacing the bottlenecks with C written extensions. Programming education—You can teach students that programming is fun Now are you more interested in Ruby? You'll find out more in this article. Ruby is named after the red jewel; it's not an acronym. I chose the name of the language from the jewel name, influenced by Perl. Although I named Ruby rather by coincidence, I later realized that ruby comes right after pearl in several situations, including birthstones (pearl for June, ruby for July) and font sizes (Perl is 5-point, Ruby is 5.5-point). I thought that it only made sense to use Ruby as a name for a scripting language that was newer (and, hopefully, better) than Perl.

Ruby has adopted various features from many languages, including Perl, Lisp, and Smalltalk, and it has become a different language than the others. Let me sketch Ruby by comparing it with other languages. Smalltalk Like Smalltalk Ruby is a dynamic and pure object-oriented language. Both languages are dynamic because they do not use static type information. They are pure because all values are objects and are classified into classes that are objects themselves. Both are also designed to be object-oriented languages from the beginning, and they both support garbage collection. In Smalltalk, control flow structures such as conditionals are done by sending messages to the objects—at least, that's how it appears. Sometimes this makes Smalltalk programs unnatural and hard to read. In Ruby, control flow structure is far more conservative. Smalltalk is an operating system and a programming environment. The program is basically an image within the environment that is constructed through interaction via browsers. Unlike Smalltalk programs, Ruby programs are clearly separated from the language and its interpreter. Perl Ruby and two other great "P" languages (Perl and Python) often are classified as scripting languages. They are scripting languages, but probably not in the sense that you imagine.

They are scripting languages for these reasons: They support a fast development cycle (edit-run-edit) by interpreters. No compilation is needed. They focus on quick programming by requiring you to code less. For example, you don't have to deal with static types of variables. Fewer declarations are needed in programs. Because of these attributes, these languages can be used for everyday task one-liners. Imagine developing a so-called one-liner (such as scanning the log files) in C, for example. A strong set of built-in libraries supports the handling of text and files. Unfortunately, by the word scripting, many people imagine poor languages that can be used only for small programs. That was true in the past and is still true for some languages, such as csh. After Perl, scripting languages are languages that focus on quick development, although Perl still has the smell of old scripting attributes. Even if you can't seem to throw off this illusion, do not call Ruby a scripting language; instead, call it a "dynamic object-oriented language." Unlike Perl, Ruby is a genuine object-oriented language; OOP features are not an add-on.

Ruby uses less punctuation ($,@,%, and so on), less context dependency, and less implicit type conversion, so Ruby programs tend to be less cryptic. For example, the following is used in Ruby to obtain length of a string and an array: a = "abc" a.length # => 3 a = [1,2,3] a.length # => 3 Very simple. In Perl, however, things are far more complicated: $a = "abc"; length($a); # => 3, it's OK @a = (1,2,3); length(@a); # => 1, not as expected scalar(@a); # => 3, it's the Perl way to get array size $a = [1,2,3]; # reference to an anonymous array length($a); # => 16, not as expected scalar(@$a); # => 3, need dereference to get array size You must always be aware of data types and context in Perl, and this can be a burden for programmers. Ruby frees you of this burden. In Ruby, most of the Perl functions are organized into class libraries. Simple Ruby programs often look like reordered and simplified Perl programs.

Take a look at some examples: -- Ruby print "hello world" -- -- Perl print "hello world"; -- -- Ruby print Time.now.strftime("%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y\n") -- -- Perl use POSIX qw(strftime); print strftime("%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y\n", localtime(time())); -- -- Ruby require 'socket' print TCPSocket.open("localhost", "daytime").read -- -- Perl use IO::Socket; $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => 'localhost:daytime'); print <$sock>; -- Ruby is very much influenced by Perl—in fact, some users describe Ruby as "a better Perl than Perl." I believe that I have removed most of the Perl traps from Ruby, although a few new ones may have been added. Python On the Python newsgroup, questions/requests/complaints such as the following seem to crop up from time to time: I dislike code structuring by indentation. Why doesn’t Python have a "real" garbage collection? Why are there two distinct data types, list and tuple? Separating types and classes is annoying. Why are all values not class instances?

Why is no method available for numbers, tuples, and strings? Explicit conversion between small integers and long integers is annoying. Maintaining reference counts in the extensions is tiresome and error-prone. Of course, the above are not always problems. Many Pythoneers live happily with these attributes of Python, and some even consider them features. I don't think that most of them will be removed from a future Python, but all of these are already solved in Ruby. From my point of view, I have provided "a better Python than Python." Because Ruby supports a strong set of functions that are designed after Perl, Ruby programs tend to be smaller and more concise than ones in Python. Ruby programs also often run faster than their Python equivalents, partly because the Ruby interpreter uses the method-cache technique. Ruby is bigger than Python in many ways as well, including syntax. But, from my point of view, it makes programs more natural. Here's an interesting quote from Programming Perl by Larry Wall: Minimalism: The belief that "small is beautiful." Paradoxically, if you say something in a small language, it turns out big, and if you say it in a big language, it turns out small. Go figure.

Ruby is hovering near the edge of too complicated. Design Policy of Ruby For me, the purpose of life is, at least partly, to have joy. Programmers often feel joy when they can concentrate on the creative side of programming, so Ruby is designed to make programmers happy. I consider a programming language as a user interface, so it should follow the principles of user interface. Principle of Conciseness I want computers to be my servants, not my masters. Thus, I'd like to give them orders quickly. A good servant should do a lot of work with a short order. Principle of Consistency As with uniform object treatment, as stated before, a small set of rules covers the whole Ruby language. Ruby is a relatively simple language, but it's not too simple. I've tried to follow the principle of "least surprise." Ruby is not too unique, so a programmer with basic knowledge of programming languages can learn it very quickly. Principle of Flexibility Because languages are meant to express thought, a language should not restrict human thought, but should help it. Ruby consists of an unchangeable small core (that is, syntax) and arbitrary extensible class libraries.

Because most things are done in libraries, you can treat user-defined classes and objects just as you treat built-in ones. Programming is incredibly less stressful in Ruby because of these principles. Page 1 of 6 Next > A Beginner's Guide to Ruby Programming Language Updated May 26, 2016. What is Ruby? Ruby is unique among object-oriented scripting languages. In a sense, it's a purist's language for those who love object-oriented languages. Everything, without exception, is automatically an object, whereas in other programming languages this isn't true. What is an object? Well, in a sense you can think of it in terms of building a car. If you have a blueprint for it, then an object is what's built from that blueprint. It contains all the attributes that the object holds (i.e. make, model, color) and the actions it can perform. But, even as a pure object-oriented language, Ruby doesn't sacrifice any usability or flexibility by leaving out features that aren't expressly related to object-oriented programming.

Ruby's architect Yukihiro Matsumoto (known simply as "Matz" on the web) designed the language to be simple enough for beginning programmers to use while also powerful enough for experienced programmers to have all the tools they'd need. continue reading below our video How to Backup Everything It sounds contradictory, but this dichotomy is owed to Ruby's pure object-oriented design and Matz's careful selection of features from other languages such as Perl , Smalltalk and Lisp . There are libraries for building all types of applications with Ruby: XML parsers , GUI bindings, networking protocols, game libraries and more. Ruby programmers also have access to the powerful RubyGems program. Comparable to Perl's CPAN , RubyGems makes it easy to import other programmers' libraries into your own programs. What is Ruby Not? Like any programming language, Ruby has its downsides. It's not a high-performance programming language. In that regard, Python's virtual machine design has a huge advantage. Also, if you're not a fan of the object-oriented methodology then Ruby isn't for you. Though Ruby does have some features that fall outside the realm of object-oriented languages, it's not possible to create a non-trivial Ruby program without using the object-oriented features.

Ruby doesn't always perform as well as other similar scripting languages in raw computing tasks. That being said, future versions will address these problems and alternate implementations, such as JRuby , are available as a workaround for these issues. How is Ruby Used? Ruby is used in typical scripting language applications such as text processing and "glue" or middleware programs. It's suitable for small, ad-hoc scripting tasks that, in the past, may have been solved with Perl . Writing small programs with Ruby is as easy as importing the modules you need and writing an almost BASIC-like "sequence of events" type of program. Like Perl, Ruby also has first-class regular expressions, which makes text processing scripts a snap to write. The flexible syntax also aides in small scripts. With some object-oriented languages, you can get bogged down with verbose and bulky code, but Ruby leaves you free to simply worry about your script. Ruby is also suitable for larger software systems. Its most successful application is in the Ruby on Rails web framework , software which has five major subsystems, numerous minor pieces and a plethora of support scripts, database backends and libraries. To aid the creation of larger systems, Ruby offers several layers of compartmentalization, including the class and module.

Its lack of superfluous features allows programmers to write and use large software systems without any surprises. What Skills Would be Helpful for Learning Ruby? A solid understanding of object oriented concepts. Ruby is an object oriented language and the object oriented features are used throughout. Without this critical skill, you'll be struggling as a Ruby programmer. A bit of functional programming knowledge. This is a plus as Ruby uses the block or "closure" extensively. Not having this ability isn't insurmountable, though. Creating blocks is a feature that can be learned easily enough while learning Ruby. A bit of navigational know-how. The primary way of running a Ruby script is from the command-line. Knowing how to navigate directories, run scripts and redirect input and output are essential skills to Ruby programmers. Applications and Tools Needed for Ruby About Ruby Home Downloads Documentation Libraries Community News Security About Ruby Menu About Ruby Wondering why Ruby is so popular? Its fans call it a beautiful, artful language. And yet, they say it’s handy and practical. What gives? The Ideals of Ruby’s Creator Ruby is a language of careful balance.

Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto , blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming. He has often said that he is “trying to make Ruby natural, not simple,” in a way that mirrors life. Building on this, he adds: Ruby is simple in appearance, but is very complex inside, just like our human body 1 . About Ruby’s Growth Since its public release in 1995, Ruby has drawn devoted coders worldwide. In 2006, Ruby achieved mass acceptance. With active user groups formed in the world’s major cities and Ruby-related conferences filled to capacity. Ruby-Talk, the primary mailing list for discussion of the Ruby language, climbed to an average of 200 messages per day in 2006. It has dropped in recent years as the size of the community pushed discussion from one central list into many smaller groups. Ruby is ranked among the top 10 on most of the indices that measure the growth and popularity of programming languages worldwide (such as the TIOBE index ).

Much of the growth is attributed to the popularity of software written in Ruby, particularly the Ruby on Rails web framework. Ruby is also completely free . Not only free of charge, but also free to use, copy, modify, and distribute. Seeing Everything as an Object Initially, Matz looked at other languages to find an ideal syntax. Recalling his search, he said, “I wanted a scripting language that was more powerful than Perl, and more object-oriented than Python 2 .” In Ruby, everything is an object. Every bit of information and code can be given their own properties and actions. Object-oriented programming calls properties by the name instance variables and actions are known as methods. Ruby’s pure object-oriented approach is most commonly demonstrated by a bit of code which applies an action to a number. 5.times { print "We *love* Ruby -- it's outrageous!" } In many languages, numbers and other primitive types are not objects. Ruby follows the influence of the Smalltalk language by giving methods and instance variables to all of its types. This eases one’s use of Ruby, since rules applying to objects apply to all of Ruby. Ruby’s Flexibility Ruby is seen as a flexible language, since it allows its users to freely alter its parts.

Essential parts of Ruby can be removed or redefined, at will. Existing parts can be added upon. Ruby tries not to restrict the coder. For example, addition is performed with the plus (+) operator. But, if you’d rather use the readable word plus, you could add such a method to Ruby’s builtin Numeric class. class Numeric def plus(x) self.+(x) end end y = 5.plus 6 # y is now equal to 11 Ruby’s operators are syntactic sugar for methods. You can redefine them as well. Blocks: a Truly Expressive Feature Ruby’s block are also seen as a source of great flexibility. A programmer can attach a closure to any method, describing how that method should act. The closure is called a block and has become one of the most popular features for newcomers to Ruby from other imperative languages like PHP or Visual Basic. Blocks are inspired by functional languages. Matz said, “in Ruby closures, I wanted to respect the Lisp culture 3 .” search_engines = %w[Google Yahoo MSN].map do |engine| "" + engine.downcase + ".com" end In the above code, the block is described inside the do ... end construct.

The map method applies the block to the provided list of words. Many other methods in Ruby leave a hole open for a coder to write their own block to fill in the details of what that method should do. Ruby and the Mixin Unlike many object-oriented languages, Ruby features single inheritance only, on purpose. But Ruby knows the concept of modules (called Categories in Objective-C). Modules are collections of methods. Classes can mixin a module and receive all its methods for free. For example, any class which implements the each method can mixin the Enumerable module, which adds a pile of methods that use each for looping. class MyArray include Enumerable end Generally, Rubyists see this as a much clearer way than multiple inheritance, which is complex and can be too restrictive. Ruby’s Visual Appearance While Ruby often uses very limited punctuation and usually prefers English keywords, some punctuation is used to decorate Ruby. Ruby needs no variable declarations. It uses simple naming conventions to denote the scope of variables. var could be a local variable. @var is an instance variable. $var is a global variable. These sigils enhance readability by allowing the programmer to easily identify the roles of each variable. It also becomes unnecessary to use a tiresome self. prepended to every instance member.

Beyond the Basics Ruby has a wealth of other features, among which are the following: Ruby has exception handling features, like Java or Python, to make it easy to handle errors. Ruby features a true mark-and-sweep garbage collector for all Ruby objects. No need to maintain reference counts in extension libraries. As Matz says, “This is better for your health.” Writing C extensions in Ruby is easier than in Perl or Python, with a very elegant API for calling Ruby from C. This includes calls for embedding Ruby in software, for use as a scripting language. A SWIG interface is also available. Ruby can load extension libraries dynamically if an OS allows. Ruby features OS independent threading. Thus, for all platforms on which Ruby runs, you also have multithreading, regardless of if the OS supports it or not, even on MS-DOS! Ruby is highly portable: it is developed mostly on GNU/Linux, but works on many types of UNIX, Mac OS X, Windows, DOS, BeOS, OS/2, etc. Other Implementations of Ruby Ruby, as a language, has a few different implementations.

This page has been discussing the reference implementation, in the community often referred to as MRI (“Matz’s Ruby Interpreter”) or CRuby (since it is written in C), but there are also others. They are often useful in certain situations, provide extra integration to other languages or environments, or have special features that MRI doesn’t. Here’s a list: JRuby is Ruby atop the JVM (Java Virtual Machine), utilizing the JVM’s optimizing JIT compilers, garbage collectors, concurrent threads, tool ecosystem, and vast collection of libraries. Rubinius is ‘Ruby written in Ruby’. Built on top of LLVM, Rubinius sports a nifty virtual machine that other languages are being built on top of, too. MacRuby is a Ruby that’s tightly integrated with Apple’s Cocoa libraries for Mac OS X, allowing you to write desktop applications with ease. mruby is a lightweight implementation of the Ruby language that can be linked and embedded within an application. Its development is led by Ruby’s creator Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto. IronRuby is an implementation “tightly integrated with the .NET Framework”. MagLev is “a fast, stable, Ruby implementation with integrated object persistence and distributed shared cache”.

Cardinal is a “Ruby compiler for Parrot Virtual Machine” (Perl 6). References Perl Vs Ruby Perl Vs Ruby Need Help?? Dhanasekar has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question: For a long period of time it is just wavering in my mind on finding which is the better programming language, Perl or Ruby. I navigated through the site and found that it is suggested to use Ruby And Perl is meant only for Text Processing and Scripting (for some administration activities ) But yet I have a feel that Perl is more powerful !! Isn't it ? Can any one direct me on understanding the details on this further ? Need a clear understanding on which is better suitable for Enterprise kind of Application ?? Comment on Perl Vs Ruby Replies are listed 'Best First'. by BrowserUk (Pope) on Nov 26, 2008 at 13:14 UTC I navigated through the site and found that it is suggested to use Ruby Ignore them. Use Perl. There, now you have two opinions. Are you any the wiser? But yet I have a feel that Perl is more powerful Define "powerful"? (Hint:Anything you can do in Perl can be done in Ruby.

And vice versa.) Need a clear understanding on which is better suitable for Enterprise kind of Application ?? Define "Enterprise kind of Application"? (Hint: The term 'enterprise' in this context, is a label applied by the marketing men of expensive software to stroke the ego's of those they are trying to pursuade to pay their over-inflated prices.) Industrical strength software can be written in any general purpose programming language from assembler to Haskell. The defining factors include (but are not limited to), the expertise of the programmers; the thoroughness of the design; the rigour of the testing; the complexity of the application; the simplicity of the solution; the maintainability of the codebase. And the measure of all of these is a) subjective; b) much more reliant upon the procedures, practices and practitioners of the given implementation, than the language of implementation. If you seriously want to arrive at a conclusion of which you personally prefer, (rather than just bear-baiting), then pick a moderately complex application and try to develop Perl and Ruby solutions to the same specification.

Depending upon the application; your own development and languages experience, (or that of your development team(s)); and the practices and procedures you (they), use; you will probably arrive at a conclusion quite early in the development. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice. by Dhanasekar (Acolyte) on Nov 27, 2008 at 08:32 UTC Define "powerful"? Powerful refers to the community, CPAN, and support which is widely available in Perl than Ruby Define "Enterprise kind of Application"? I mean enterprise in the way the application works. In enterprise there will be process overhead 24/7. In this case the performance and resource usability should be considered. But in the case of Text Processing and Scripting, the program is not expected to run all the time. by xiaoyafeng (Chaplain) on Nov 28, 2008 at 02:40 UTC Ignore them. Use Perl. succinct and powerful!!

I am trying to improve my English skills, if you see a mistake please feel free to reply or /msg me a correction Re: Perl Vs Ruby by jettero (Monsignor) on Nov 26, 2008 at 11:30 UTC Since the languages serve exactly the same role, it's silly to try to figure out which is "better" without talking about personal taste. For instance, I happen to think pizza is better than hamburgers, but I don't think there are metrics to describe that. Salt content? I find various syntactical problems with ruby entirely rule out the language for my own personal uses, but that's purely a matter of taste. -Paul Re: Perl Vs Ruby by rovf (Priest) on Nov 26, 2008 at 12:04 UTC Having done projects in both languages, I don't think you will find a clear advantage in one or the other when it comes to power of expressiveness. As it was already said, it is a big matter of taste. For instance, I like very much with Ruby that Arrays and Hashes can be dealt directly instead of going via references, and that classes are "first class values".

At the moment, an advantage of Ruby (depending on your application) might be that there is also a Java implementation of Ruby available (JRuby), which makes it easy to interface to Java classes. On the other hand, I don't like some aspect of scoping rules in Ruby. For both languages, I found the community very friendly, so it is comfortable for a beginner. For people not knowing either language, I have the impression that Perl is easy to lear, while Ruby is very easy to learn. I got this impression from talking to various people who actually started with one or the other languages, plus my own impression. If you find the time, implement some small task in both languages and decide which you like better. -- Re: Perl Vs Ruby by ptoulis (Scribe) on Nov 26, 2008 at 16:11 UTC As many fellow monks have said, it is really a matter of taste. Ruby is hot right now, no doubt, perhaps hotter than Perl. However, Perl is much more mature and has CPAN. So I guess both are great for building the so called industrial-strength applications.

Technically Ruby is yet-another-language that copied Perl and added a complete object system (which came late in Perl). Its syntax is pretty much a ripoff from Perl. This is why Larry Wall considers it the biggest 'threat' to Perl's 'ecological niche'. So I guess this is why it is a matter of taste. There is no much distinction in technology (they are both dynamic, general-purpose languages), no difference in speed( Perl is a little faster), and also both are supported by vibrant communities. I will stick with Perl because I know it is THE one of its kind. It took others a decade to fully realize the real power of the language and now that we have all these clones around, perhaps Perl 6 will be the next big thing. by Your Mother (Chancellor) on Nov 26, 2008 at 19:10 UTC But yet I have a feel that Perl is more powerful And faster, and more widely distributed, and required in more jobs, and better supported, and with a drastically larger base of quality, 3rd party code, groups, and communities, and more flexible, and... That said, I know a few strong hackers who have drifted from Perl to focus on Ruby.

I won't be one of them though. :) If current events matter, I start a new gig with Perl in two weeks, finish a high paying telecommute one this week, and have been contacted by recruiters, unsolicited, seven or eight times this year for Perl jobs (and I consider myself junior in Perl chops to *many* of the monks here; stick around, I owe a good slice of the dev chops I do have to this place). Re: Perl Vs Ruby by EvanCarroll (Chaplain) on Nov 26, 2008 at 16:05 UTC I don't think they compare, off-the-shelf Perl without access to Moose blows. Moose makes complex tasks bearable and offers some nifty functionality that even surpasses off-the-shelf Ruby. I tend to lean perl, even though I dislike the bad-practice by default. Here is a good template to make perl suck less than Ruby. use Moose; use autodie; use features ':5.10'; use mro 'c3'; ## Module starts here.

no Moose; __PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable; LanguageComparisons - Python Wiki LanguageComparisons Comparing Python to various other languages: Full Treatments: Multiple Languages: At Hyperpolyglot compare PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby and more side-by-side. Rosetta Code is a programming chrestomathy site. The idea is to present solutions to the same task in as many different languages as possible, to demonstrate how languages are similar and different, and to aid a person with a grounding in one approach to a problem in learning another. Rosetta Code currently has hundreds of tasks, and covers over 150 languages, though we do not have solutions to every task in every language, Python is very well represented. Several in 2006, David Howard's . This essay provides implementations of moderately simple algorithms, like Red-Black Trees in various languages. The essay compares language features and renders fair verdicts. It has a handy feature to scroll through the various implementations side by side. A good, quick read. Several in 2002: GlyphLefkowitz wrote, and MikeConnell updated some very simple performance benchmarks . This is no longer being updated.

Several in 2000: Lutz Prechelt 's article An Empirical Comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl for a Search/String-Processing Program (pdf) is a little old, but it is REAL RESEARCH, comparing productivity and program performance for 80 different implementations of the same requirements, in seven languages. Several in 1997: Guido's essay Comparing Python to Other Languages is an essay comparison of Python to Java, JavaScript , Perl, Tcl, Smalltalk , C++, Common Lisp, and Scheme. erratically updated: " Bilateral comparisons of scripting languages " Important: this reply to Forrester Research's 2007 Survey on Dynamic Languages The PLEAC - Programming Language Examples Alike Cookbook. This project aims to gather fans of programming, in order to implement the solutions to the programming problems from the Perl Cookbook in other programming languages. "Syntax across languages." A detailed comparison of syntax in different programming languages. Perl Perl in 2000: Eric Raymond's essay Why Python describes how he discovered Python, how it compares to Perl, and why he was impressed. Perl in 1999: The humorous Python vs.

Perl according to Yoda . Lisp Lisp: Peter Norvig wrote Python for Lisp Programmers which includes a feature-by-feature comparison. Lisp in 1999: There is a pretty terrible comparison of Python and Lisp (in the sense of being uninformed about Lisp) at . The only reason for mentioning it is to say, yes, it's old and inaccurate, and not to take it too seriously (you can seach comp.lang.lisp for more specific refutations if you really want). Tcl Tcl in 1998: Frank Stajano's paper, Implementing the SMS server, or why I switched from Tcl to Python , was presented at the Seventh International Python Conference (in 1998). (Also available in PDF .) Java Comparing Python to Java A subjective analysis of two high-level, object-oriented languages - Comparing Python to Java 2007: here's a frequent dialogue: Pythoneer: "My Python source is a tenth the size of my Java programs"; Javaite: "No way! Maybe you gain 30%, but they're kind of the same language, right?"; and so on.

This brief note by Paul Buchheit gives a little more depth to the discussion. His point: Java APIs are often terrible. Java: Stephen Ferg's Python & Java: a Side-by-Side Comparison looks at programmer productivity. Recovery from Addiction by Sean Kelly, Screencast A dont-take-it-too-serious Comparison of Python and Java. ... please add more! 5 Programming Languages Marked for Death - Dice Insights 5 Programming Languages Marked for Death Register Newsletter Stay ahead. Get the weekly Dice Advisor with a digest of freshly posted jobs, tech news headlines & career advice. Please enter a valid email address Submit Validating your email address. This may take a few moments... Thank you for subscribing! You will receive an email confirmation shortly. Jeff Cogswell Jeff Cogswell is the author of several tech books including “C++ All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies,” “C++ Cookbook,” and “Designing Highly Useable Software.” A software engineer for over 20 years, Jeff has written extensively on many different development topics. An expert in C++ and JavaScript, he has experience starting from low-level C development on Linux, up through modern Web development in JavaScript and jQuery, PHP, and ASP.NET MVC.

jeffcogswell Update: So how did we do with these predictions? Check out our March 2016 article that breaks down which of the following languages continue to retain market-share… and which are, indeed, imploding. As developers embrace new programming languages, older languages can go one of two ways: stay in use , despite fading popularity, or die out completely. We predict the following languages will likely die: Perl There was a time when everyone seemingly programmed in Perl . But for those of us who used the language regularly, there was something about it that didn’t seem right. One programmer I knew called it a “piecemeal” language, because it seemed as if the creators had just piled features on top of features without giving much thought as to how everything fit together. Click here to find programming jobs. Indeed, even its creators seemed to (implicitly) acknowledge that something was wrong, kicking off work on Perl6, currently under development as a complete revamp of the language. Work on Perl6 started in… the year 2000. Where is it? Who cares? Perl is dead. Don’t bother learning it.

Incidentally, here’s a “Goodbye World!” written in Perl: #!/usr/bin/perl print “Content-type: text/html\n\n”; print “Goodbye, world!\n”; This example (derived from ) produces a Web page. Perl, which works as a CGI scripting language, found its most popular use in generating Web pages. The language had its day—but now is as good a time as any to ditch Perl and embrace the 21st century. Upload Your Resume Employers want candidates like you. Upload your resume. Show them you’re awesome. Ruby Just ten years ago, Ruby was all the rage. Invented in 1995, the unique language hit its stride by the mid-aughts . People who use Ruby on a regular basis absolutely love it. But those of us who grew up with C-style languages tend to have a little trouble learning its ropes. Here’s a simple “Goodbye World!” in Ruby: puts ‘Bye bye, Miss American Ruby!

Drove my Chevy to the Levie…’ puts ‘2011 was the day that Ruby died, yeah…’ And here’s a more complex example that calculates a factorial, found here : def fact(n) end puts fact(ARGV[0].to_i) I tested this out to find the factorial of 1000. Here’s part of the response; I deleted the middle of the 2569 digits to save space: ruby fact.rb 1000 40238726007709377354370243392300…0000000 By all accounts, it’s a cool language and everybody has good things to say about it… except Twitter. In April 2011, Twitter announced that they had rewritten much of their code in order to move away from Ruby and its popular Web framework, Ruby on Rails , claiming the platforms were inefficient. That, I would argue, was the day Ruby started to die; over the past three and a half years, interest has begun to wane. If you love Ruby, you can thank Twitter for its demise.

Visual Basic.NET Ten years ago, I landed a job rewriting massive amounts of code for a company that shall go nameless, converting from VB6 to Visual basic.NET . I only lasted a couple months before I bailed: It was an excruciating task. Microsoft’s long love of the BASIC programming language extends all the way back to 1991, when the company purchased a pretty awesome (for its time) visual programming designer from Alan Cooper. He originally used a different language, but Bill Gates told him to replace the language with BASIC, which he felt was the easiest language in use at the time. For most of the 1990s, we got to see this new breed of BASIC, dubbed Visual Basic, grow to include objects and other newer programming techniques. Then something interesting happened. The guy who headed up the creation of Borland Delphi , Anders Hejlsberg, moved over to Microsoft and headed up the creation of a new language called C# . This language was very similar to Java . It took a while for people to start using it, but once they did, they loved it. C# soon became Microsoft’s flagship programming language.

To this day, there are many, many C# jobs, and C# programmers command high salaries. While Microsoft created C# to target its own CLR runtime, its engineers also created a version of Gates’ beloved BASIC language, named it Visual Basic.NET. The language still bore the syntax of BASIC, but the coding approach was similar to that of C#. Both languages moved forward, but it was inevitable that the world would embrace one (C#) at the expense of the other. That’s why Visual Basic.NET has been reduced to C#’s little stepbrother in hospice care. Here’s a Visual Basic.NET program from Microsoft’s website : ‘ Allow easy reference to the System namespace classes. Imports System (Feel free, of course, to sub out “Hello World” for “Goodbye World.”) Adobe Flash and AIR Technically these are platforms, not languages. I’m including them because, in order to use them, you need Adobe’s own version of EcmaScript, called ActionScript. ActionScript is a close cousin to JavaScript , which (love it or hate it) is one of the most popular languages today due to its implementation in all browsers.

ActionScript adds a few details to EcmaScript (which is the official name of the standard, of which JavaScript is an implementation); you won’t really find ActionScript anywhere except for Adobe Flash. Do you use Flash? Steve Jobs hated how it hogged his devices’ processors, and refused to allow it onto the iPhone. As the iPhone (and subsequently the iPad) grew in popularity, Web developers found themselves forced to create websites that didn’t rely on Flash. Developers who made a living coding up ActionScript for Flash-powered sites screamed bloody murder. (I personally saw a Flash developer tell off a room of JavaScript developers for destroying his career.) Adobe tried to keep its programming platform alive via AIR, paired with a tool for building AIR apps called Flex. AIR was, in the estimation of many, a disaster. It wasn’t clear what Adobe wanted out of the whole process; did they want people to ditch Flash and use AIR instead? Or were they expecting AIR and Flash to live on together? For a short time it looked as if AIR would take off, thanks to its use in a popular Twitter platform called TweetDeck, which required users to install the AIR runtime on their computers.

That might have opened up millions of PCs for AIR apps, except Twitter bought TweetDeck in 2011 and rewrote it using native code instead of AIR. So much for AIR. And between the deaths of both Flash and AIR, Adobe’s ActionScript can kiss the world goodbye as well. Here’s some sample ActionScript code . (If you use the Flex command-line tools you can compile this into a Flash thingamajob that you can embed in an HTML page): package { } } (Those with programming knowledge might notice how the above looks very similar to JavaScript, both using var, function, and new, and accessing member variables with a dot.) Delphi’s Object Pascal With sincere apologies to my fallen Delphi comrades, I must announce the death of Object Pascal . Okay, Delphi (the tool for developing Object Pascal) actually lives on, having moved between companies (it originated with Borland, and now sits with Embarcadero). The original Delphi and its Object Pascal language actually presented a great working environment; the language was a bit wordy, but the compiler was fast and it was much easier to create Windows programs in compared to Visual Basic (I’m talking pre-Visual Basic.NET here, around 1995).

The momentum didn’t continue. It’s hard to say just why, since the platform was really quite good. Meanwhile, Borland began supporting C# and C++ in its Delphi line of products. Long story short, Delphi was eventually sold off to Embarcadero, which continues to produce it. It’s big, and it’s sophisticated, and continues to do reasonably well—but its focus is not Pascal. Yes, you can still do Pascal programming in it, but few people do; in fact, you can use Delphi to build for many different platforms including iOS , Android , and, soon, Linux . But if you go to the Embarcadero website, you’ll see that they mainly promote Delphi’s C++ support. So, Object Pascal is dead. I say this with sadness, as I’ve spent quite a bit of time programming in Pascal and especially Delphi’s Object Pascal. But that’s life. Here’s some Object Pascal code: program HelloWorld;

Question: What type of "languages" are Ruby and Perl?
Answer: Programming Language