Does anyone think Ruby is still worth learning? Can it still compete with the other major languages?

Question

I've been hearing a lot recently about how interest in Ruby is fading and that the language is on its way out.
Looking at the trending codes on here appears to support that view - of the top 10 trending Ruby codes, 7 were created by Sololearn rather than users. Compare that to Python where all of the top 10 were created by users ( and you have to scroll a long way down to find one from Sololearn)

Answer 1

To be honest it's entirely what you do with it that counts. I've noticed over my years of programming (self learned from 15 now 27) that languages such as Java have become "the must learn" because of Android and the thirst for BIG BUCKS if Facebook or Google decide to buy your app lool. God bless those who learn languages in order to gain ££ as they need to live and make a living, but I don't see them making an impact for future technologies if that's their only drive.

Ruby is my next target to learn but I'll admit it will be for additional knowledge base, as I'm happy with HTML, CSS, JS, SQL, my baby PHP and Python for web development. All other languages I studied because of complexity, as I do believe the harder they are to learn the easier writing code becomes and not only that, when I have a project in mind I can choose from an arsenal of code to make efficient programs.

Answer 2

do you have a chainsaw at home?
maybe yes because you like it
maybe yes because you need it to solve a certain problem.
maybe no because for the moment you dont need it. and when you need it you buy it.

shouldnt you buy one to have it when you need it?
well ... in future there could be better ones.

you should know there ARE chainsaws.

thats it with ruby

Answer 3

Learning Ruby is a prerequisite to learning Ruby on Rails. You’ll be one step closer to creating web applications like Twitter, Yellow Pages, Hulu, or Groupon.

Answer 4

YES THIS DISCUSSION FINALLY REACHED "TRENDING" THERE MIGHT BE A CHANCE THEY WILL ADD RUBY TO WEAPONS OR QUIZ FACTORY THANK YOU @Michael Foster !!!! ^.^ :D =D Yasss

Answer 5

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fm%2F060kv,%2Fm%2F03g20,%2Fm%2F015tjh,%2Fm%2F02p97,%2Fm%2F0jgqg&hl=en-US

Trends (Interest) over time (5 years) and region: HTML, Javascript, css, PHP, C++.

Ruby is not in the list because it was almost flat at the bottom and might be including results from the gemstone (disproportionate interest in Tanzania)...but the chart's editable if you can figure out how to separate Ruby. (Python might also be tricky)

Notice how C++ relates to the web ones; maybe it should be compared to Java, C#, etc. Edit: fixed link.

Answer 6

Yes, it is worth learning, maybe make some 2D games, your application, or even make your own website! :D, Without Ruby on Rails (son of Ruby) we have no twitter and hulu :D

Answer 7

Ruby is fun to write in and learning several languages is really the way to improve your programing skills so my answer is yes. Plus some big companies use Ruby on Rails and since there are not as many Ruby developers they often pay well.

Answer 8

Here's my thoughts, after learning Ruby (taking Sololearn's course), I see one thing that might deter people from using it. It's ugly af syntax. It's similar to Python, but it's practically all words. Not many delimiters to break up the endless chain that is words. People end up liking programming languages not only for functionality, but for syntax. Second thing I notice, unless you're really good with it and know all the shortcuts, Ruby is slow to run in comparison to anything C based(HTML, CSS). The same problem occurs with Python, unless you're good with it, it's gonna be slow. Now don't get me wrong JavaScript has a similar problem because it's a script language (like Ruby, Ruby on the Rails, and Python), are you starting to see the pattern here? Now don't let this stop you, I whole heartdly suggest learning as many languages as you can, the more you know the better you'll be.

Answer 9

I think what really matters at the end of the day is your real motive in coding. Cause if you want to think out of the box ,then learn a lot of languages to flex your mind and muscle memory. The fact that you guys think ruby is less important by checking the statistical data that shows less programmers are using it ,is a real proof that those using it think outside the box and find it's worth.

Long story short, if you don't need a hammer it doesn't mean it's not useful. it only means you have not yet meet a problem that needs a hammer solution but you cannot through away the hammer for that reason.

food for thought.

Answer 10

I don't think so!

Answer 11

Ruby is a great programming language. It speeds up the programming process and many companies are using it implements their tasks in short terms according the client requirements or some other reason. I know great programmers that completely know java, c and other main languages to work mainly with ruby on rails after more than 15 years in the programming fields. Ruby is great with its human friendly style so I am in love with it ❤and absolutely prefer to push it into the challenges. Yeah it will be a great fight there🆙 .

Answer 12

Yes, it is worth learning. it is used for Web applications and many more.

Answer 13

it's very easy to learn IMO and is useful for very specific things. if you don't need to learn it I'd suggest something else. unless you have some time to kill on sololearn ;)

Answer 14

mine i choose ruby

Answer 15

You should learn it because of it's very powerful frameworks: there's Ruby on Rails and Sass

Answer 16

I have read some "trends list" article. The author said Ruby is gonna be much better after this year. Sorry, I could not find the link.

Answer 17

As many have pointed out ruby is great if you want to make webapps with Rails. There are good resources out there for both ruby (Learn ruby the hard way, rails tutorial etc.).
It also has good web scraping (think similar to search engines) that give you a wide range of options for working with web site data.
You could use it for other purposes, but youd have to research if there are similar languages that do the job better.
Generally for you cant go wrong with learning web development with ruby.

Answer 18

ruby on rails is still very big so id vote yes

Answer 19

As a completely beginner, I started from other languages, following the general trend, and I think that many others begin with the same way. But this does not mean that ruby is not an interesting language.

Answer 20

I don't know like all fri know but i think it's fun to code ruby.