Why Ruby?

Why Ruby?

on Dec 29th 2010 with 24 comments

Just because you didn’t get to go to that awesome conference doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! Each week, we feature one recommended web development lecture on Nettuts+.

In this recent lecture from Ruby Conf 2010, David Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails, focuses less on coding techniques, and more on the Ruby philosophy, in general. What makes a language like Ruby preferable to its peers? David provides his answer.

 
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  • http://www.airwolfe.com Alex

    Always love hearing this guy speak. He an expert at driving home good arguments and pointing out the obvious.

  • Alexander

    One of the most exciting persons in the industry

  • Matt

    i didnt watch till end but i skip most part, i like david presentation, but i just dont like when he compare ruby non-GUI code to python GUI code and java GUI code.

    • Wassim

      +1 in here.

    • dantario

      +1 . but still the python class looks better & clear than the ruby one, and still i prefer python and django than ruby and its rails :)

  • http://www.moviemusicgame.com/ mmgfan

    Will check this out when I get home!

    Happy new year, everyone!

  • http://www.rebatesense.com RebateSense

    I generally like DH’s business talks better than his technical talks but this one is nice.

  • http://flocktravel.com cbmeeks

    Great speaker. DHH’s podcast on TWiT (FLOSS WEEKLY) was the best I ever heard.

    • http://www.blackleafmedia.com Patrick

      Agreed! As I said in my own comment, he comes off as a blowhard at first, but you end up respecting him by the end.

    • http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/ Randal L. Schwartz

      The best episode of FLOSS Weekly, or the best interview of DHH? In either case, thank you!

      • http://www.blackleafmedia.com Patrick

        I would say both! It is still one of my favorite bits of programming ever on TWiT.tv ever. Great job Randal!

        DHH made it clear that RoR isn’t the tool for everyone all the time, but when it lines up with what you are doing, it can be a fantastic tool.

  • http://www.blackleafmedia.com Patrick

    DHH always comes off as being arrogant, very “my way or the highway”……and for him it works, and works in spades. He always has a great argument about WHY, there is no “just because” with him. As a previous commenter said, his episode on FLOSS Weekly was fantastic. At first he came off as a blowhard, but by the end of the episode I had a good deal more respect for the guy.

  • http://www.arlexclocks.com Arlex

    This is the Floss Weekly podcast: http://twit.tv/floss79

  • nehzul

    “his episode on FLOSS Weekly” — someone link me to an online video please?

  • http://www.mweichert.com Michael Weichert

    David should be a politician! :)

  • http://www.pixeldonor.com jem

    Very enthusiastic speaker, but very subjective opinions. I do like the edgy comparisons to real world topics. I’d still take the aesthetics of Python code over Ruby any day, cuts out a lot of the clutter while still being legible.

  • jonny V

    OH MY GOD!!!

    i had no idea what he was talking about, lol…..

    kudos to you coders!

  • http://dave.com Dave

    This guy is a very good speaker, perhaps a little over the top sometimes and could od without the swearing but a good speaker nonetheless!

  • http://webflame.com.au John

    One of the most compelling arguments about Ruby that i have ever heard .

  • http://www.planetfrank.us frank

    honestly I think its a poor presentation. this freedom song is so easy

  • markus

    Although this presentation was quite fun to me, there was a lot of bullshit too. Comparing all those drugs to programming languages and the mixing up compiled languages and scripting languages and comparing them on their beauty .. i don’t know

  • Jesus Bejarano

    Dios mio que tipo tan estupido.

  • http://twitter.com/SeanFathom Sean Fallon

    This makes me want to switch to Ruby and Ruby on Rails.

  • Domi

    Arguments pro Ruby should be just flat platitudes about freedom which is granted, mocking up about restrictions which do not exist and revolution against an industry ascribed to be scorfulous? I don’t think so. Did he make any point out of what makes Ruby different from other languages? All I know after this, Ruby omits type setting. Fine. JavaScript too. And having node.js on server and browser support on client in common.

    It was not a good idea to introduce Ruby to an audience which is already using Ruby. To see the guy as cheap sloganeer on this stage to push up the people, this point of view makes the presentation fun. Nothing else. No win for me as newbie to get from this