Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, creator of the Ruby programming language, recently spoke to around 500 Ruby Developers at the Ruby Bath Conference. Ruby celebrated the 25-year anniversary of its initial inception–although its first general release wasn’t until 1995. When asked why he named it Ruby, Matsumoto stated, “I wanted to name the language after a jewel.”

However, compared to other current coding languages such as Node.js (Javascript’s framework), it’s been <href=”#7f53205d6a3d”>falling a bit behind. Matz still has an optimistic view over the language—stating that he will address the problems of the language’s scalability and make it easier for new programmers to pick up.

Why Are Developers Switching to Ruby?

Ruby is an underrated programming language, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. It plays a huge role in the startup community and still increases in popularity as time progresses. Here are some of the main reasons why Ruby on Rails programmers remain loyal to this programming language:

Ruby Has an Active and Strong Developer Community

Ruby’s prized Rails framework has about 3,500 GitHub contributors on the project. In comparison, Python’s framework Django has only around 1,500 contributors. This means that Ruby has an active community where contributions are frequently made.

Because of its strong community, there are a multitude of open sourced libraries (gems) within Rails. This helps Ruby on Rails programmers to create secure and functional applications faster and more efficiently. Developers can troubleshoot problems, help each other, and share their experience.

And, its active community gives Ruby ample documentation. Thus, Ruby developers can find detailed guides and explanations to the gems they plan on using.

Ruby is Great for Startups

Along with a myriad of popular programming languages, some startups have used Ruby for their apps. With its intuitive and simple code, Ruby helps Ruby on Rails programmers save time. On average, development teams that use Ruby on Rails can make applications 30-40 percent faster than groups who use other technology.

Needless to say, having faster development teams translates to more savings for startups running on limited budget constraints. And Ruby on Rails is open-sourced, meaning that investors don’t have to pay for using it. Also, there are a variety of gems that help developers create functional and interesting Rails apps.

The money startups save can be used for implementing additional features and making the app more helpful and functional to use.

Ruby remains a high-quality programming language that helps teams make successful and interesting projects. Besides, end-users don’t care what language is their favorite apps are developed on—as long as it’s secure, helpful, and reliable. And Ruby on Rails is the best tool for that.

Conclusion

Even if skeptics say that Ruby on Rails has lost its popularity, it’s still one of the best frameworks around. It helps startups create projects faster without having to waste money on additional development costs. If you’re planning on helping your startup make a minimum viable product (MVP) that’s efficient and more reliable than many other programming languages.

Have you used Ruby or Ruby on Rails? Let us know what you think in the comments below?