Ruby (programming language)

Ruby is a way to talk to computers.

A man named Matz made it in Japan. He wanted it to be fun and easy to use.

In Ruby, everything is an object. This means every part has its own special skills. Matz chose the name because a friend had a ruby birthstone. Now, many people use it to make things for the web. It is a very popular tool for making code.

Ruby is a way to write code for computers.

A man named Yukihiro Matsumoto created it in Japan. He wanted the language to be fun to use. He also wanted it to help people work fast.

In Ruby, everything is an object. An object is a part of the code that has its own skills. These skills are called methods. Even simple numbers are objects in Ruby.

Matz began working on Ruby in the mid-1990s. He chose the name during an online chat. He and a friend thought of the name "Coral." They also thought of "Ruby." He picked Ruby because a friend had a ruby birthstone.

Ruby became very popular for making websites. This happened because of a tool called Ruby on Rails.

Many people around the world use Ruby today. In 2020, a new version called Ruby 3 was released. This version was made to run three times faster than the old one. It uses special tools to make the code run very quickly.

Ruby is a special way to write code for computers. It is a general-purpose programming language, which means it can do many different types of jobs. The person who made it wanted to focus on two main things. He wanted people to be productive, which means they can work fast. He also wanted the language to be simple and fun to use.

This focus on people helps programmers enjoy their work every day.

In Ruby, the way things work is very organized. Everything in the language is an object. An object is a part of the code that has its own built-in abilities called methods. Even simple things like numbers or true and false values are objects. This means every single piece of data has its own skills to use.

This makes the language very consistent for the person writing the code.

A man named Yukihiro Matsumoto, often called "Matz," started this project in Japan. He first thought of the idea for Ruby in 1993. Before he even wrote any code, he talked with a friend named Keiju Ishitsuka. They had a chat online to pick a name for the language. They thought about the name "Coral" first. In the end, Matz chose "Ruby" because a colleague had a ruby as a birthstone.

Ruby has changed a lot since it first came out in 1995. The first public version was Ruby 0.95, which appeared on Japanese newsgroups. In 1997, the first article about Ruby was put on the Web. By the year 2000, Ruby was actually more popular than Python in Japan. Later, a tool called Ruby on Rails helped more people around the world learn it. In 2011 and 2012, Ruby even became an official international standard.

Today, Ruby keeps getting better and faster. A big update called Ruby 3.0 came out on Christmas Day in 2020. This version was called "Ruby 3x3." This name means it was meant to run three times faster than Ruby 2.0. It uses special tools like just-in-time compilers to speed things up. Newer versions like Ruby 3.3 and 3.4 continue to add even more speed and new ways to work.

Ruby is a general-purpose programming language designed for high productivity and simplicity. It is a high-level language, which means it is designed to be easy for humans to read and write. Ruby is also interpreted, meaning a program called an interpreter runs the code. This interpreter uses garbage collection to manage memory and just-in-time compilation to increase speed. A unique feature of Ruby is that everything is an object. This includes primitive data types like integers and Booleans. Because everything is an object, every value has built-in abilities called methods.

The language works through several different programming paradigms. It supports procedural programming, which follows a sequence of steps. It also supports object-oriented programming, where code is organized around objects. Additionally, it supports functional programming. The design of Ruby is influenced by many other languages. Matsumoto drew ideas from Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, BASIC, and Lisp. He wanted to combine the practical utility of Perl with the object system of Smalltalk. He also wanted a core that resembled a simple Lisp language.

History began in 1993 when Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto conceived the idea in Japan. Before any code was written, Matz and Keiju Ishitsuka had an online chat to name the language. They considered the name "Coral" but eventually chose "Ruby." One reason for this choice was that a colleague had a ruby as a birthstone. The first public release, version 0.95, was announced on December 21, 1995. This release included features like classes with inheritance, mixins, and exception handling. By 1997, the first article about Ruby was published on the Web. In 1998, Matsumoto launched the Ruby Application Archive and an English homepage. By the year 2000, Ruby was more popular than Python in Japan.

As Ruby grew, it became an international standard. In 2011, it was accepted as a Japanese Industrial Standard. In 2012, it became an international standard known as ISO/IEC 30170. Interest in the language surged around 2005 due to Ruby on Rails. Rails is a web framework written in Ruby that increased global awareness. Version 1.8 was a long-running stable version released in August 2003. It was eventually retired in June 2013. Version 1.9 followed, though it was only partially compatible with the older 1.8 version. This lack of compatibility meant many third-party gems had to be rewritten.

Ruby 2.0 was released on February 24, 2013. It was intended to be fully backward compatible with version 1.9.3, with only five known incompatibilities. Later versions like 2.2.0 introduced an incremental garbage collector. This tool helps manage memory more efficiently. Version 2.3.0 brought performance improvements to many parts of the language. It also added a "did_you_mean" gem to suggest correct names when a programmer makes a typo. Version 2.4.0 unified different number types into a single Integer class. These updates show how the language constantly evolves to be more efficient and helpful for developers.

A major milestone occurred on December 25, 2020, with the release of Ruby 3.0. This version was nicknamed "Ruby 3x3." The name signifies a goal for programs to run three times faster than in Ruby 2.0. To reach this speed, Ruby 3.0 uses MJIT, a just-in-time compiler. Later, YJIT was introduced to further enhance performance. Ruby 3.0 also focused on concurrency, which allows a computer to do many things at once. It introduced Ractor, a tool that is light-weight and thread-safe. Ractor achieves safety by exchanging messages instead of sharing objects.

Recent updates have continued to push the boundaries of what Ruby can do. Ruby 3.1 was released in December 2021 and included a new debugger. In 2022, Ruby 3.2 added support for WebAssembly via a WASI interface. This allows Ruby to run in new types of web environments. Ruby 3.3, released in 2023, introduced the Prism parser for better maintainability. It also added the RJIT, a pure-Ruby JIT compiler. The most recent major update, Ruby 3.4, was released on December 24, 2024. It includes a modular Garbage Collector and improves the YJIT compiler. These continuous improvements ensure that Ruby remains a powerful tool for programmers worldwide.