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Ruby Vs. Python: What‘s The Difference, And Which Is Better?

Ruby and Python are two of the most popular and versatile programming languages used today. With roots in the 1990s, both languages have grown to become pillars of web development, data science, automation, and more. But important distinctions set Ruby and Python apart in terms of performance, syntax, frameworks, use cases and other key factors.

So should you build your next application with Ruby or Python? In this comprehensive comparison guide, we’ll highlight the key similarities, differences and pros and cons of each language to help you decide. Let‘s dive in!

A Brief History

First, let‘s briefly cover the origins of each language.

Ruby was conceived in 1993 by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto in Japan. Matz designed Ruby with three core principles in mind:

  1. Productivity – Ruby should make programmers happy and maximize their productivity
  2. Flexibility – Ruby should support multiple programming paradigms and approaches
  3. Balance – The language should strike a balance between power and simplicity

After a couple years of development and iteration, Matz released Ruby to the public in 1995. The goal was to create an object-oriented language that made code both beautiful and joyful to write.

Python traces its history back further to the late 1980s and creator Guido van Rossum in the Netherlands. Originally released in 1991, Python aimed to be a:

  1. High-level general purpose programming language
  2. Easy for beginners to learn and use
  3. Powerful enough for experienced developers

The key design principles of Python emphasized code readability, minimalism, and uniformity. This results in Python code that tends to be clear, simple, and explicit in its intentions.

So in summary, Ruby focused more on programmer happiness and flexibility, while Python prioritized simplicity, consistency, and ease of use from the start.

Philosophy and Principles

These foundational differences manifest in the underlying design philosophy and principles behind Ruby and Python today:

Ruby Philosophy

According to Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto, the creator of Ruby, the language aims to balance three factors:

  1. Programmer Productivity – Ruby strives to give programmers joy and make them happy
  2. Program Readability – Ruby code should be natural to read for humans
  3. Program Performance – Execution speed should be good enough, though not the primary focus

Ruby also emphasizes the Principle of Least Surprise meaning seasoned Ruby developers have an intuitive sense of how the language will behave. The goal is to minimize confusion when using Ruby.

Additionally, some describe Ruby as embodying the principles of "POLS":

  • Producetivity
  • Object-Oriented Programming
  • Loose Typing
  • Strict Indentation

So in summary, Ruby‘s design philosophy centers around people – both programmers and readers of Ruby code – over performance optimizations or machine readability.

Python‘s Zen

In contrast to Ruby‘s philosophy, Python adheres to a set of principles called The Zen of Python embodied through a poem within the language:

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit. 
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Readability counts.

Additional Zen of Python principles include:

  • There should be one– and preferably only one –obvious way to do it
  • Practicality beats purity
  • Namespaces are one honking great idea

This Zen philosophy results in Python code that tends to emphasize clarity, readability, simplicity and explicitness – even at the cost of more verbose code at times. The focus is less on being beautiful or clever, and more on being straight-forward for both humans and machines to parse.

Syntax and Readability

Let‘s now dig into language syntax and readability by comparing some simple code examples.

Here‘s a simple Ruby program that prints "Hello World!":

puts "Hello World!"

And the same logic in Python:

print("Hello World!")

Even from this simple example, some syntactic differences stand out:

  • Ruby uses puts while Python uses print()
  • Python requires parenthesis around the printed string
  • Ruby does not require those parenthesis

Now consider a simple class definition and instantiation:

class Greeter 
  def initialize(name)
    @name = name
  end

  def say_hi
    puts "Hi #{@name}!"
  end
end

greeter = Greeter.new("Ruby")
greeter.say_hi

In Python that would be:

class Greeter:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name 

    def say_hi(self):
       print(f"Hi {self.name}!")

greeter = Greeter("Python")  
greeter.say_hi()

Some syntax differences stand out again like self in Python versus @name in Ruby for instance variables. Ruby also uses puts versus Python‘s print().

Overall most developers find both Ruby and Python easy to read. But Ruby edges out Python in terms of developer enjoyment and elegance according to most surveys.

Speed and Performance

As interpreted, dynamically typed languages, Ruby and Python have similar performance profiles. That said, benchmarks typically show Python code executing faster than similar Ruby code.

For example, Python edged out Ruby in 9 out of 10 tests in this Python vs Ruby benchmark assessment, often by 50% or more.

However, the raw speed differences only start to become very noticeable in computationally intensive programs like scientific data analysis. For most common web development, automation tasks, Python and Ruby are comparable.

Additionally, Ruby interpreters like JRuby and TruffleRuby close the performance gap significantly by utilizing a JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler for Ruby code rather than interpreting line-by-line.

So if pure processing performance is your top priority, Python has an edge. But both languages are still reasonably fast for web and business applications.

Web Frameworks

For web development, the ecosystem of web app frameworks around each language plays a major role.

For Ruby, far and away the most dominant framework is Ruby on Rails introduced in 2004. Rails employs convention over configuration (CoC), model-view-controller (MVC) architecture, and an emphasis on rapid web application development. Global brands from Airbnb to GitHub to Shopify all use Ruby on Rails.

In the Python world, there are two leading contenders:

  • Django – A high-level Python framework that enables rapid development, clean pragmatic design, and extensibility. Used by large sites like Instagram and Pinterest.
  • Flask – A "microframework" built in Python that keeps core simple but extensible. Used by sites like LinkedIn and Twilio.

So Ruby developers gravitate almost universally towards Rails because it‘s become synonymous with Ruby for the web. Python developers need to choose between Django or Flask based on their specific needs and preferences.

Ultimately all three frameworks (Rails, Django and Flask) are mature, robust choices for modern web development. But Ruby on Rails still seems uniquely optimized for quickly standing up web MVPs.

Use Cases and Applications

Beyond web development, Ruby and Python both serve as general purpose programming languages suitable for a wide range of scripting, automation, data analysis, machine learning, and other tasks.

However, over time Python has become the language of choice for data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), scientific computing and analytics applications. Core Python data libraries like NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Scikit-Learn, and TensorFlow fuel Python‘s dominance in this area.

Whereas Ruby is rarely used in data science and machine learning circles. The language also lacks advanced math and matrix manipulation libraries to compete with Python for analytics applications.

On the flip side, Ruby tends to be a more popular choice than Python for general scripting needs. Ruby‘s expressiveness and meta-programming capabilities make it a joy for writing automation scripts, build utilities, code generators, plugins, and more.

So in summary:

  • For data science, analytics, machine learning → Python
  • For agile web apps, MVPs → Ruby
  • General purpose scripting → slight edge Ruby

Community and Ecosystem

Beyond the languages themselves, the vitality of the surrounding communities and ecosystem plays a huge role in adoption and support.

By most estimates, the global Python community surpasses Ruby by a factor of 5X to 10X based on metrics like:

  • SO Survey (Python 44% have used vs Ruby 16% have used)
  • GitHub Repositories (3.4 million Python vs 700K Ruby)
  • Stack Overflow Questions (1.9M+ Python vs 800K+ Ruby)

The size of the Python community stems from its utility across so many industries like science, academics, data analysis and web development. Plus data science and machine learning developers skewing heavily towards using Python.

Comparatively, the Ruby community is much more tightly focused around web development. Rubyfaces competition from other languages like JavaScript, PHP and .NET in its core web development niche.

Both languages benefit from passionate, engaged users willing to help. But Python simply dwarfs the size of Ruby adoption, which translates into more abundant libraries, tools, documentation and resources available online.

Job Market and Popularity

In terms of current job market demand:

Python also ranks higher on the IEEE Spectrum top programming languages and RedMonk language rankings.

So by most assessments, Python enjoys greater popularity globally among working developers. Not to mention data scientists, machine learning engineers, academics, and hobbyists using the language.

That said, within specific geographies, or the web development niche, Ruby jobs remain abundant as well. For example a search for "ruby on rails developer" on LinkedIn surfaces 77K+ open jobs globally as of this writing.

Pros and Cons Summary

Let‘s recap some strengths and weaknesses of each language as observed today:

Python Pros

  • Very readable and simple syntax
  • Huge community provides abundant libraries and resources
  • Excellent for data analysis, machine learning and scientific computing
  • Highly versatile across domains beyond just web development
  • More performant for intensive math/processing workloads

Python Cons

  • Verbose at times (no shortcut expressions like Ruby)
  • Not as beginner friendly as something like Ruby
  • Global interpreter lock (GIL) complicates some threading
  • All those library choices creates decision fatigue

Ruby Pros

  • Beautiful and expressive syntax
  • Excellent for rapid web application development
  • Rich metaprogramming and DSL capabilities
  • Fun and easy to learn for beginners
  • Framework stability with Rails

Ruby Cons

  • Performance lags behind Python, C#, Java, etc
  • Much smaller ecosystem and community than Python
  • Far fewer libraries for data science, ML work
  • Brittleness and complexity at scale due to metaprogramming

So in summary – Python brings simplicity, stability and performance while Ruby focuses more on developer happiness, productivity and expressiveness. Both languages have downsides to balance out though.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Here‘s a quick head-to-head overview of key Python vs Ruby differences:

Python Ruby
Designed for Beginner friendliness and simplicity Programmer happiness and productivity
Performance Faster execution than Ruby Slower, but optimized via JRuby, TruffleRuby
Primary web frameworks Django, Flask Ruby on Rails
Use cases Data science, ML, automation Web apps, scripting, MVPs
Popularity and demand More widely used than Ruby Smaller community but very vibrant

So in a nutshell, Python tends to be used more broadly while Ruby carves out a niche in areas like agile web development.

Conclusion

So should you learn Ruby or Python? The short answer is…both!

Here are some quick rules of thumb based on our analysis:

  • Building a web app or MVP? → Ruby / Rails
  • Data analysis, ML project? → Python
  • Basic scripting or GUIs? → Toss up
  • Absolute fastest performance? → Python

Of course your specific needs may vary. The good news is mastering one language gives you a great foundation to then learn another. And both Python and Ruby skills remain in high demand relative to other languages.

So evaluate your unique criteria whether that‘s community support, available libraries, performance needs, or ease of syntax. Then dive deep into either Ruby or Python first with the option to cross-train down the road.

The future remains bright for these leading dynamic languages as developer tooling continues rapidly evolving around Python and Ruby. We hope this guide gave you a comprehensive view to make the right choice for your next programming project.

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