Stefan Tilkov:
Ruby ? die Programmiersprache der Zukunft

Why Ruby?

• it's different
• it supports growth
• it's expressive
• it's concise
• we can afford it
• Rails!
• it's fun

Quick Intro

• Type system: dynamic, strong, implicit
• interpreted (mostly...)
• very dynamic
• strong metaprogramming support
• purely object-oriented
  
  code examples...
• loops
• lists and operations on lists
• hashes
  
  comparison von Java code and Ruby code to sort an array by lenght of elements
• methods
• classes
  
  #{variableName} in string literals is replaced by the variable's value
• inheritance
• modules (kind of container for methods)
• "getters" and "setters" (properties!)
• Attribute Accessor: short cut for properties (nice )
  
  
  Metaprogramming with Ruby
  
  Structures
  Struct.new "Person", :first_name, :last_name creates new class
  
  Creating objects and classes by name
  Kernel.const_get('String').new "Teststring" creates String object
  Test = Class.new
  
  Indivual object methods
  class << t1
  def object_method ...
  
  Classes and constants
  
  Runtime Definitions
  
  Methods adding methods
  
  Adding methods to existing classes like String: (Re)opening classes
  
  method_missing: Method called, when a missing method is called, with name of called method as argument
  
  short, declarative notation is "expanded" to many method definitions
  
  
  Ruby language implemenations
• MRI = Matz's Ruby Interpreter
• YARV = Yet anthother Ruby VM
• Rubinius: "Ruby in Ruby"
• JRuby: "Ruby in Java"
  
  
  Ruby vs. other dynamic languages
  
  Perl
• many libraries
• "write only" reputation
• weak (wierd) OO features
• very fast
  
  Python
• great community
• extensive libraries
• extremely fast
  
  Jython
• JVM version of Python
• neglected for a long time
• now supported by Sun
  
  Groovy
• designed for the JVM
• supposedly easier for Java developers
  
  
  Summary
  Ruby: nice, concise, object-oriented language
  Killer feature: metaprogramming support
  Killer framework: Ruby on Rails