HN Explorer

Ask HN: In your opinion, what is the current state of Ruby?

13 points by amorphid ↗ HN
I ask because I've been asked to give a talk on the current state of Ruby at a European startup incubator. In that area, there aren't a lot of Ruby events, and they're just looking for high level information about my experiences working with Ruby in San Francisco, CA. I have some talking points based on my own experiences & observations, and I'd love to hear what others have to say, too.

I'll comment on this thread myself in a few days and/or link to the talk I give if it gets recorded.

11 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 37.2 ms ] thread
bauerd
Despite having ventured into FP territory, I still like and use Ruby a lot. The state of Ruby imho has not changed much over the last couple of years. MRI is stable, but still slow and memory-hungry. Demand exists, and supply, too, depending on where you are located and if you accept remote.
Lordarminius
>... Demand exists, and supply, too, depending on where you are located and if you accept remote.

As a person actively involved in looking for a remote job I have to ask? What do you mean by 'remote'. I have come to realize there are two meanings employers wont expressly state: 1. developers who live within the US 2.developers who wish to work remotely and live outside the US

bauerd
I'm not from the US btw, but with "remote" I mean does not require physical presence.
jressey
I'm in Atlanta and have been passively looking for a Rails job for about a year. There are not as many as when I was in the Northeast looking around 2014. However the companies I'm speaking with who use Ruby have a mature approach, which is contrary to many peoples' perception of how Ruby shops work. I get the impression from them that they are fatigued from interviewing flocks of weak Ruby devs. From my perspective, if anything is hurting the current state, it's probably people who can build stuff with Ruby but don't necessarily appreciate the craft of building software.
jamesmp98
lol, I wish I could move back to Atlanta, I'm stuck in South Carolina where there's nothing.
tboyd47
In terms of the job market, things were a lot better five years ago. People used to be impressed just when applicants show basic competency. Nowadays, interview processes usually involve a lengthy homework assignment, and completing the assignment is usually not good enough; teams seem to be looking for a very specific coding style. I don't know if this is specific to Ruby or more of a reflection of the job market as a whole.

In terms of technology, it's just fine as always. My company succumbed to Javascript fever this year and I miss Ruby on Rails a lot. There are so many little conveniences that you don't really appreciate until they're gone.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
rurban
Rails with it's insane mop usage almost killed it, and it's hard to make it fast with such an inherently broken killer app. They are trying, but so far only hashes got better, not any jit or pic's (method caching).
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
gt2
Ruby, ROR, and sinatra are still being used for tons of projects, both small and large. But, there's less chatter about rails online because rails matured/isn't as in-flux as it once was. Ruby doesn't have the as many 3rd party ML libs as python, so that's a bit of detraction from the ruby's motion (pun intended).
TomK32
I'm programming Ruby (on Rails) for 10 years now and the language hasn't lost any of its appeal.