Tag: ruby

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Ruby on Rails vs .Net Core: Detailed Comparison

Many web development frameworks out there in the market are claimed to be the best and most reliable for your project. But what is the reality? Are they even as qualified as hyped? 

Today in this article, we are going to discuss two such best frameworks Ruby on Rails and .NET Core. Because of these frameworks’ unique capabilities and the wide range of benefits they offer, RoR developers and top .NET development companies are always in demand among modern businesses. 

What makes these frameworks so powerful and reliable? Which one of them is more suitable for your web development project? Well, let’s find the answers by discussing what these frameworks are and what are their pros and cons. 

Ruby on Rails 

Ruby on Rails follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, which separates an application into three main components: the model, which represents the data and business logic; the view, which handles the presentation of the data; and the controller, which serves as an intermediary between the model and view, processing user requests and handling the flow of data.

Ruby on Rails emphasizes convention over configuration, which means that it provides a set of standard conventions and best practices for building web applications, allowing developers to quickly build applications without writing a lot of code from scratch. Rails also follow the Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) principle, which encourages developers to avoid duplicating code and to keep their codebase as concise as possible.

Ruby on Rails provides a wide range of built-in tools and libraries for tasks such as database management, testing, and security, making it a popular choice for building web applications. It is also known for its strong community support, with many open-source libraries and resources available for developers to use.

Advantages of Ruby on Rails 

Here are some of the key advantages of using Ruby on Rails for web development:

  1. Rapid development: RoR follows the “convention over configuration” principle, which means that it provides a set of standard conventions and best practices that allow developers to quickly build web applications without writing a lot of code from scratch. 
  1. Productivity: RoR provides a rich set of built-in tools and libraries that allow developers to focus on building their applications, rather than worrying about low-level implementation details. 
  1. Scalability: RoR is designed to be scalable, allowing developers to build applications that can handle a large number of users and traffic. RoR also provides built-in support for caching, which can help improve application performance and scalability.
  1. Flexibility: Ruby on Rails also supports a wide range of databases and platforms, allowing developers to choose the technologies that best suit their needs. This makes it one of the most flexible development frameworks available in the market. 
  1. Community support: RoR web development framework is supported by a large community of developers who continuously keep contributing to the framework by building new open-source tools and libraries. This community support can be invaluable for developers who need help or guidance on specific aspects of their development projects.

Limitations of Ruby on Rails 

While Ruby on Rails offers many advantages for web development, there are also some limitations to consider. Here are some of the key limitations of using Rails for web development:

  1. Learning curve: Although Ruby on Rails is designed to be developer-friendly, it can still have a steep learning curve for beginners. RoR has its own set of conventions and patterns that can take some time to understand and master.
  1. Performance: While RoR is designed to be scalable, its performance can be slower compared to some other web frameworks. This can be a concern for applications that require high performance, such as those with large numbers of concurrent users or high volumes of data.
  1. Resource-intensive: RoR can be resource-intensive, especially in terms of memory usage. This means that web applications built with Ruby on Rails may require more server resources than those built with other web frameworks.
  1. Updates and compatibility issues: Since RoR is an open-source framework, updates, and compatibility issues can arise. Developers need to stay up-to-date with the latest version of RoR and its dependencies to avoid compatibility issues and potential security vulnerabilities.
  1. Not suitable for all projects: While RoR is a flexible framework, it may not be suitable for all types of projects. For example, projects that require low-level control over hardware or operating systems may require a more specialized framework.

.NET Core 

.NET Core is a free, open-source, cross-platform, modular, and high-performance framework for building modern, cloud-based applications. It is developed by Microsoft and is designed to be a modern and flexible successor to the .NET Framework.

.NET Core supports multiple programming languages, including C#, F#, and Visual Basic, and can be used to build a range of applications, including web applications, microservices, desktop applications, and gaming applications.

.NET Core is designed to be modular, flexible, and lightweight, allowing developers to build applications that can run on a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. It provides a set of standard libraries and tools that developers can use to build web applications, desktop applications, mobile applications, and more.

.NET Core also includes ASP.NET Core, a web framework that allows developers to build web applications using .NET Core. ASP.NET Core provides a range of features for building web applications, including support for Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, Razor Pages, middleware, and more.

Advantages of .NET Core 

There are several advantages to using .NET Core for developing web and cloud-based applications. Here are some of the key advantages of .NET Core:

  1. Cross-platform compatibility: .NET Core is designed to be cross-platform, which means that it can run on Windows, Linux, and macOS. This makes it easy to build and deploy applications on a range of platforms.
  1. High performance: .NET Core is designed to be fast and efficient, with a focus on optimizing performance for web and cloud-based applications. This makes it a popular choice for applications that require high performance, such as those with large numbers of concurrent users or high volumes of data.
  1. Open-source: .NET Core is an open-source framework, which means that its source code is available to developers. This makes it easy to customize and extend the framework to meet specific application requirements.
  1. Modular design: .NET Core is designed to be modular, which means that it includes a range of lightweight and extensible components that can be used independently or together. This makes it easy to build and deploy applications that only require specific components.
  1. Cloud-ready: .NET Core is designed to be cloud-ready, with built-in support for cloud-based development and deployment, including support for Docker containers and Kubernetes.
  1. Developer-friendly: .NET Core provides a range of developer-friendly features and tools, including Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and the .NET Core CLI, making it easy for developers to build and debug applications.
  1. Strong community support: .NET Core has a strong and active community of developers who contribute to the framework by creating open-source libraries, tools, and extensions. This can be helpful for developers who need guidance or help on specific aspects of their development projects.

Limitations of .NET Core

  1. Limited support for some Windows-specific features: While .NET Core is designed to be cross-platform, it does not support all of the features of the .NET framework like WF and WCF. 
  1. Limited backward compatibility: Applications developed using the previous versions of .NET may require significant changes to work with .NET Core.
  1. Smaller ecosystem: While .NET Core has a growing ecosystem of libraries, tools, and extensions, it is still smaller than the ecosystem around the full .NET Framework. This can make it harder to find specific tools or libraries for specific tasks.
  1. Learning curve: If you don’t know anything about the .NET framework then it will take some time and effort to get started with .NET Core. 
  1. Lack of stability: As .NET Core is still a relatively new technology, there may be some stability issues or bugs that have not yet been identified or addressed by the development team. This can make it harder to ensure that your applications are stable and reliable.

Final words 

Both Ruby on Rails and .NET Core are powerful frameworks for developing web applications, but they have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the specific needs of your project. 

If you are looking for a framework that is designed to be highly performant, scalable, and cross-platform, .NET Core may be the better choice. If you are looking for a framework that is easy to learn and has a strong community, Ruby on Rails may be the better choice.

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Analysis

Infographic: Programming languages adoption trends 2021

Infographic: Programming Language adoption trends 2021

In our last infographic, JavaScript was the most popular programming language. What has changed in terms of the sizes in the last six months? You can find the answers in this infographic with key findings from our Developer Economics 20th edition survey, which ran between November 2020 and February 2021 and reached 19,000 developers worldwide.

Javascript is the queen of programming languages

JavaScript is the most popular programming language by some distance, with nearly 14M developers using it globally. More importantly, the JavaScript community has been growing in size consistently for the past three years. Between Q4 2017 and Q1 2021, more than 4.5M developers joined the community – the highest growth in absolute terms across all languages. Even in software sectors where JavaScript is not among developers’ top choices, like data science or embedded development, about a fourth of developers use it in their projects.

Python is conquering the world

Since it surpassed Java in popularity at the beginning of 2020, Python has remained the second most widely adopted language behind JavaScript. Python now counts just over 10M users, after adding 1.6M net new developers in the past year alone. That’s a 20% growth rate, the highest across all the large programming language communities of more than 6M users. The rise of data science and machine learning (ML) is a clear factor in Python’s popularity. Close to 70% of ML developers and data scientists report using Python. For perspective, only 17% use R, the other language often associated with data science.

Kotlin’s rise continues

The fastest growing language community in percentage terms is Kotlin. In fact, it’s one of the two communities – the other being Rust – that has grown more than two-fold over the last three years, from 1.1M developers in Q4 2017 to 2.6M in Q1 2021. This is also very

evident from Kotlin’s ranking, where it moved from 11th to eight place during that period – a trend that’s largely attributed to Google’s decision to make Kotlin its preferred language for Android development. Even so, Kotlin still has a long way to go to catch up with the leading language in mobile development, Java; there are currently twice as many mobile developers building applications in Java than in Kotlin.

Swift was recently outranked by Kotlin, after attracting slightly fewer net new developers in the second half of 2020 (100K vs 300K). Even so, Swift is currently the default language for development across all Apple platforms, which has led to a stagnation in the adoption of Objective C. This gradual phase-out of Objective C from the Apple app ecosystem is also matched by a significant drop in its rank, from ninth to 12th place. 

The more niche languages – Go, Ruby, Rust, and Lua – are still much smaller, with up to 2.1M active software developers each. Go and Ruby are important languages in backend development, but Go has grown slightly faster in the past year, both in absolute and percentage terms. Rust has formed a very strong community of developers who care about performance, memory safety, and security. As a result, it grew faster than any other language in the last 12 months, more than doubling in size. Finally, Lua was also among the fastest growing language communities in the last year, mainly attracting AR/VR and IoT developers looking for a scripting alternative to low-level languages such as C and C++.

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Infographic: Programming languages adoption trends 2021
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Languages

Infographic: Programming languages adoption trends 2020

What do developers value in open source?

Languages are a beloved subject of debate and the kernels of some of the strongest developer communities. The choice of programming language matters deeply to developers because they want to keep their skills up to date and marketable. They matter to toolmakers too, because they want to make sure they provide the most useful SDKs. So which programming languages had notable changes in adoption trends in the last 3 years? Find the answers in our infographic with key findings from our Developer Economics 19th edition survey, which ran in June-August 2020 and reached 17,000 developers in 159 countries. 

JavaScript is the most popular programming language

As of Q3 2020, 12.4M developers globally were using JavaScript. We also estimate that in mid-2020 there were 21.3M active software developers in the world. So, 58% of all developers use JavaScript. Notably, the JavaScript community has been growing in size consistently for the past three years. Between Q2 2017 and Q3 2020, nearly 5M developers joined the community – by far the highest growth in absolute terms across all languages. Even in software sectors where JavaScript is least popular, like data science or AR/VR, over a fifth of developers use it in their projects. 

It’s a good idea to learn Python

For the second half-year period in a row, Python is the most widely adopted language behind JavaScript. Python now counts 9M users, after adding 2.2M net new developers in the past year alone, outranking Java at the beginning of 2020. The rise of data science and machine learning (ML) is a clear factor in its popularity. An impressive 77% of ML developers and data scientists currently use Python. For perspective, only 22% use R, the other language often associated with data science.

What’s new with Java and other well- established programming languages?

Java, with over 8M active users worldwide, is the cornerstone of the mobile app ecosystem – Android – as well as one of the most important general-purpose languages. It’s adoption may have remained stable in the past six months but, in the overall picture, the Java community has gained 1.6M developers since mid-2017, which corresponds to a 24% growth.

The group of major, well-established languages is completed with C/C++ (6.3M), PHP (6.1M) and C# (6M). The fact that C# lost three places in the ranking of language communities during the last three years is mostly explained by its slower growth compared to C/C++ and PHP. C and C++ remain core languages in IoT projects (for both on-device and application-level coding), whereas PHP is still the second most commonly used language in web applications, after JavaScript. On the other hand, C# may be sustaining its dominance in the game and AR/VR developer ecosystems, but it seems to be losing its edge in desktop development – possibly due to the emergence of cross-platform tools based on web technologies.

Android developers behind Kotlin growth

Kotlin is one of the fastest growing language communities, having increased more than two-fold in size since the end of 2017, from 1.1M in Q4 2017 to 2.3M in Q3 2020. This is also very evident from Kotlin’s ranking, where it moved from 11th to ninth place during that period – a trend that’s largely attributed to Google’s decision to make Kotlin its preferred language for Android development. 

Swift surpassed Kotlin in popularity this year, after attracting slightly more net new developers in the first half of 2020 (400k vs 300k). Since Swift became the default language for development across all Apple platforms, the adoption of Objective C has been decreasing steadily. This phase-out from the Apple app ecosystem is also matched by a significant drop in the rank of Objective C, from ninth to 12th place. 

Finally, the more niche languages – Go, Ruby, Rust, and Lua – are still much smaller, with up to 1.5M active software developers each. Ruby and Lua have been around for more than two decades now, but their communities have essentially stopped growing in the last three years. On the contrary, Go and Rust appear to be actively adding developers, although it is still unclear whether the two languages will climb the programming language ranking in the coming period.

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Infographic: Programming languages adoption trends 2020
Categories
Languages

JavaScript remains the Queen of Programming Languages

programming languages

Welcome to another update on programming languages communities. The choice of programming language matters deeply to developers because they want to keep their skills up to date and marketable. Languages are a beloved subject of debate and the kernels of some of the strongest developer communities. They matter to toolmakers too, as they want to make sure they provide the most useful SDΚs.

languages_graph

 

It can be hard to assess how widely used a programming language is. The indices available from players like Tiobe, Redmonk, Stack Overflow’s yearly survey, or Github’s Octoverse are great, but mostly offer only relative comparisons between languages, providing no sense of the absolute size of each community. They may also be biased geographically, or skewed towards certain fields of software development, or open source developers.

The estimates we present here look at active software developers using each programming language, across the globe and across all kinds of programmers. They are based on two pieces of data. First, our independent estimate of the global number of software developers, which we published for the first time in 2017. Second, our large-scale, low-bias surveys which reach more than 20,000 developers every six months. In the survey, we consistently ask developers about their use of programming languages across nine areas of development1, giving us rich and reliable information about who uses each language and in which context.

JavaScript is and remains the queen of programming languages. Its community of 11.7M developers is the largest of all languages. In 2018, 2.5M developers joined the community: the highest growth in absolute numbers and more than the entire population of Swift, Ruby, or Kotlin developers, amongst others. New developers see it as an attractive entry-level language, but also existing developers are adding it to their skillset. Even in software sectors where Javascript is least popular like machine learning or on-device code in IoT, over a quarter of developers use it for their projects.

Python has reached 8.2M active developers and has now surpassed Java in terms of popularity. It is the second-fastest growing language community in absolute terms with 2.2M net new Python developers in 2018. The rise of machine learning is a clear factor in its popularity. A whopping 69% of machine learning developers and data scientists now use Python (compared to 24% of them using R).

Java (7.6M active developers), C# (6.7M), and C/C++ (6.3M) are fairly close together in terms of community size and are certainly well-established languages. However, all three are now growing at a slower rate than the general developer population. While they are not exactly stagnating, they are no longer the first languages that (new) developers look to.

Java is very popular in the mobile ecosystem and its offshoots (Android), but not for IoT devices. C# is a core part of the Microsoft ecosystem. Throughout our research, we see a consistent correlation between the use of C# and the use of Microsoft developer products. It’s no surprise to see desktop and AR/VR (Hololens) as areas where C# is popular. C/C++ is a core language family for game engines and in IoT, where performance and low-level access matter (AR/VR exists on the boundary between games and IoT).

PHP is now the second most popular language for web development and the fifth most popular language overall, with 5.9M developers. Like Python, it’s growing significantly faster than the overall developer population, having added 32% more developers to its ranks in 2018. Despite having (arguably) a somewhat bad reputation, the fact that PHP is easy to learn and widely deployed still propels it forward as a major language for the modern Internet.

The fastest growing language community in percentage terms is Kotlin. It grew by 58% in 2018 from 1.1M to 1.7M developers. Since Google has made Kotlin a first-class language for Android development, we can expect this growth to continue, in a similar way to how Swift overtook Objective-C for iOS development.

Other niche languages don’t seem to be adding many developers, if any. Swift and Objective-C are important languages to the Apple community, but are stable in terms of the number of developers that use them. Ruby and Lua are not growing their communities quickly either.

Older and more popular programming languages have vocal critics, while new, exciting languages often have enthusiastic supporters. This data would suggest that it’s not easy for new languages to grow beyond their niche and become the next big thing. What does this mean for the future of these languages and others like Go or Scala? We will certainly keep tracking this evolution and plan to keep you informed.

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