182 lines
7.9 KiB
Markdown
182 lines
7.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Why I Still Like Ruby (and a Few Things I Don’t Like)"
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date: 2020-08-06T00:00:00+00:00
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draft: false
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canonical_url: https://www.viget.com/articles/why-i-still-like-ruby-and-a-few-things-i-dont-like/
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featured: true
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references:
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- title: "The History of Ruby — SitePoint"
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url: https://www.sitepoint.com/history-ruby/
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date: 2023-11-16T14:54:03Z
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file: www-sitepoint-com-6vwmef.txt
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- title: "In Ruby, Everything is Evaluated - Mufid's Code blog"
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url: https://mufid.github.io/blog/2016/ruby-class-evaluation/
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date: 2024-01-31T15:55:28Z
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file: mufid-github-io-2czqvc.txt
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- title: "Decorating Ruby - Part Two - Method Added Decoration - DEV Community"
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url: https://dev.to/baweaver/decorating-ruby-part-two-method-added-decoration-48mj
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date: 2024-01-31T15:55:49Z
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file: dev-to-pywrcp.txt
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- title: "JavaScript Needs Blocks"
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url: https://yehudakatz.com/2012/01/10/javascript-needs-blocks/
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date: 2024-01-31T15:55:29Z
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file: yehudakatz-com-sacizu.txt
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- title: "When Should You NOT Use Rails?"
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url: https://codefol.io/posts/when-should-you-not-use-rails/
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date: 2023-11-04T17:36:55Z
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file: codefol-io-bskabg.txt
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---
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The Stack Overflow [2020 Developer
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Survey](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-languages-loved)
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came out a couple months back, and while I don't put a ton of stock in
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surveys like this, I was surprised to see Ruby seem to fare so poorly --
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most notably its rank on the "most dreaded" list. Again, who cares
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right, but it did make me take a step back and try to take an honest
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assessment of Ruby's pros and cons, as someone who's been using Ruby
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professionally for 13 years but loves playing around with other
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languages and paradigms. First off, some things I really like.
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### It's a great scripting language
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Matz's original goal in creating Ruby was to build a truly
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object-oriented scripting language[^1], and that's my
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favorite use of the language: simple, reusable programs that automate
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repetitive tasks. It has fantastic regex and unix support (check out
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[`Open3`](https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/2.0.0/Open3.html) as an
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example). I might not always build Ruby apps, but I'll probably always
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reach for it for scripting and glue code.
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### A class is a little program
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This one took me awhile to get my head around, and I'm not sure I'll do
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a perfect job explaining it, but when a Ruby class gets loaded, it's
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evaluated as a series of expressions from top-to-bottom, like a normal
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program. This means you can, for example, define a class method and then
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turn around and call it in the class' top-level source; in fact, this is
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how things like `has_many` in Rails works -- you're just calling a class
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method defined in the parent class. In other languages, you'd have to
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reach for something like macros to accomplish this same functionality.
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[Here's an alternate
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explanation](https://mufid.github.io/blog/2016/ruby-class-evaluation/)
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of what I'm getting at and [here's a cool
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post](https://dev.to/baweaver/decorating-ruby-part-two-method-added-decoration-48mj)
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that illustrates what sort of power this unlocks.
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### The community is open source-focused
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Ruby has a rich ecosystem of third-party code that Viget both benefits
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from and contributes to, and with a few notable
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exceptions[^2], it's all made available without the
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expectation of direct profit. This means that you can pull a library
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into your codebase and not have to worry about the funding status of the
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company that built it (contrast with ventured-funded open-source like
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[Gatsby](https://www.gatsbyjs.org/) and [Strapi](https://strapi.io/)).
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Granted, with time, money, and a dedicated staff, the potential is there
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to build better open source products than what small teams can do in
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their free time, but in my experience, open source development and the
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profit motive tend not to mix well.
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### Bundler is good
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It's simple, universal, and works well, and it makes it tough to get
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into other languages that haven't figured this stuff out.
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### It has a nice aesthetic
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It's easy to make code that looks good (at least to my eye) and is easy
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to understand. There's less temptation to spend a lot of time polishing
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code the way I've experienced with some functional languages.
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## And some things I don't like as much
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Lest ye think I'm some diehard Ruby fan, I've got some gripes, as well.
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### It's not universal
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As I said, my favorite use of Ruby is as a scripting language, so it's
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unfortunate that it doesn't come installed by default on most unix-y
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systems, unlike Perl, Python, and Bash. If you want to share some Ruby
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code with someone who isn't already a Ruby dev, you have to talk about,
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like, asdf, rbenv, or Docker first.
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### Functions aren't really first-class
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You can write code in an FP style in Ruby, but there's a difference
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between that and what you get in a truly functional language. I guess
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the biggest difference is that a method and a lambda/block (I know
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they're [a little
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different](https://yehudakatz.com/2012/01/10/javascript-needs-blocks/)
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don't @ me) are distinct things, and the block/yield syntax, while nice,
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isn't as nice as just passing functions around. I wish I could just do:
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```ruby
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square = -> (x) { x * x }
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[1, 2, 3].map(square)
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```
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Or even!
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```ruby
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[1, 2, 3].map(@object.square)
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```
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(Where `@object.square` gives me the handle to a function that then gets
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passed each item in the array. I recognize this is incompatible with
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optional parentheses but let me dream.)
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### It is probably too flexible
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Just like skiing, the most dangerous time to be a Ruby developer is the
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"early intermediate" phase -- you've learned the syntax and language
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features, and all of a sudden EVERYTHING is possible. Want to craft the
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perfect DSL? Do it. Want to redefine what `+` does for your Integer
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subclass? Do it. Want to open up a third-party library and inject a
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custom header? You get my point.
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As I've said, Ruby makes it easy to write nice-looking code, but it
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takes restraint (and mistakes) to write maintanable code. I suppose the
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same could be said about the programming discipline in general, but I
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can see the appeal of simpler languages like Go.
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### Type checking is cool and Ruby doesn't have it
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The first languages I learned were C++ and Java, which formed my
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opinions of explicit typing and compilation and made Ruby such a
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revelation, but a lot has changed in the subsequent decade, and modern
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typed languages are awesome. It'd be neat to be able to compile a
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project and have some level of confidence about its correctness before
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running the test suite. That said, I sure do appreciate the readability
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of things like [RSpec](https://rspec.info/) that rely on the
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dynamic/message-passing nature of Ruby. Hard to imagine writing
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something as nice as this in, like, Haskell:
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```ruby
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it { is_expected.not_to allow_values("Landlord", "Tenant").for(:client_type) }
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```
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(As I was putting this post together, I became aware of a lot of
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movement in the "typed Ruby" space, so we'll see where that goes. Check
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out
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[RBS](https://developer.squareup.com/blog/the-state-of-ruby-3-typing/)
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and [Sorbet](https://sorbet.org/) for more info.)
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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So those are my thoughts. In the end, it's probably best to know several
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languages well in order to really be able to understand
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strengths/weaknesses and pick the appropriate one for the task at hand.
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If you're interested in other thoughts along these lines, you could
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check out [this Reddit
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thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/hpta1o/i_am_tired_of_hearing_that_ruby_is_fine/)
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(and [this
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comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/hpta1o/i_am_tired_of_hearing_that_ruby_is_fine/fxvfzgo/)
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in particular) or [this blog
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post](https://codefol.io/posts/when-should-you-not-use-rails/), but what
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really matters is whether or not Ruby is suitable for your needs and
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tastes, not what bloggers/commenters/survey-takers think.
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[^1]: [*The History of Ruby*](https://www.sitepoint.com/history-ruby/)
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[^2]: I.e. [Phusion Passenger](https://www.phusionpassenger.com/)
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