Is Rails Going the Way of the Railway?
There are many programmers that believe that much like the other rail-based engine, Ruby on Rails is dead. Some people think that it has stopped in its tracks, becoming obsolete compared to new languages like Kotlin and noting a drop in Ruby engagement online, while others believe it’s full steam ahead.
This positive belief is based on the continued usefulness of Ruby on Rails as a mature framework that is easy to use, and the fact that it is still used in many popular international websites.
When Ruby was developed in 1995 by Yukihiro Matsumoto as an object-oriented language, Matsumoto was disappointed in the options he had as a programmer trying to find a simple, easy language that was centered on objects. So as many a pioneer in the pre-Millennium, he had to make it himself. Ruby quickly became an established language with great stability and ease of use, and became the language of choice for many websites with high user interactivity.
Statistics and Ruby
The idea that Ruby has been becoming obsolete has been circulating around the internet for a few years now, based on a slow decline of the language on Google Trends. It has also dropped a few places on Stack Overflow surveys as new languages and frameworks have pushed their way up in the competitive field of coding languages.
According to the Stack Overflow 2020 Survey, Ruby has dropped from its place on the top ten that it had held prior to 2017 as new languages built up followings, such as Go and Kotlin, and sits at 14th place. Ruby on Rails also remains lower down than many other frameworks, but holds the same percentage of use as Ruby, showing that they are tied together. Ruby on Rails is in 13th place.
Another survey, the TIOBE Programming Community Index, which is based on popular search engine trends and amount of code developed by web developers and engineers, indicates that Ruby is actually moving up from 2020, jumping four spaces into the 11th space from 15th, where it was more aligned with Stack Overflow’s 2020 places. This indicates a bump in the last year that may not be seen more substantially until the Stack Overflow 2021 Survey.
Continued Use of Ruby
Despite the exit door being held open for Ruby on Rails by some programmers, Ruby on Rails still remains strong and has a foothold in many websites with a large and interactive user database, including AirBnB, SoundCloud, and even GitHub. It’s a base that allows for community engagement, whether it’s through large companies that require an active userbase, or Ruby developers continuing to work on and develop open-source projects.
Ruby and Rails are also still updated on a regular basis, getting more features added to their framework for ease of use. Both Ruby and Rails have received updates within the last six months, with Rails in version 6.1 as of December 2020, and Ruby receiving an update as recently as April 2021.
Despite a decline in stats, Ruby on Rails remains a solid code framework with lots of use, and may be on an upward slide. If you’re looking to build an interactive website based on community building, Ruby on Rails might be the train you want to catch.