views:

178

answers:

3
  • What kind of Applications are suited mostly for Ruby or Groovy ?

    Alternatively

  • what problems are better addressed by programming languages like Ruby or Groovy ?

+4  A: 

Ruby and Groovy are general purpose languages that can be used for most application areas.

One is perhaps more likely to choose one of those language systems for the environment than the language. The frameworks and existing base of applications and plugins might be more important for a decision than the language. The infrastructure you need to run them is quite different.

Having said that, the language can sure make a difference in how much you like working with it. So, an advanced language like Ruby or Groovy can be expected to appeal to sophisticated developers and can be expected to accumulate packages, frameworks, and converts.1

What I'm trying to say is that the languages are not completely suited for one thing or another, but attributes they have determine who will pick them and why.

Groovy and other post-Java JVM languages like Scala (and, sort-of, Ruby) intend to leverage the huge Java libraries and provide execution speeds closer to C++ than interpreted languages can get.


1. I've heard people gush about how great Ruby is. While some people like PHP, some dislike it and I just can't imagine someone saying that PHP is a better language than X, for pretty much any value of X**.** Yes, PHP is a well-supported and well-documented system that gets the job done, but not something that will win any design awards. The idea is, developer are attracted to some languages, but most would then argue that the language is better for all areas, not just one or another.

DigitalRoss
A: 

One of the neat things about Ruby is the flexibility. It's a lot like PHP in that you can use it as a procedural design, OOP, whatever. It's very fast and pretty simple to learn.

I think it's put together in a way that's easy to learn and the code is not cryptic or unreadable. That means anything you build in it, if you need help later you can probably get a qualified programmer to learn it, or even figure it out enough to be able to help you fix something. Not something you can say about similar languages such as C++ or Perl.

Plus Ruby On Rails is a huge time saver, and a great way to build large apps very quickly.

Jeremy Morgan
A: 

As the prior answers told you. Groovy and Ruby are general programming languages, which can be used to write general things.

Personally, I like to use both when I must have a quick start up on my projects. They are AWESOME for that.

But mostly important is the opposite of this question: in which situations Groovy and Ruby should not be used. If high performance is one of your pre requisites, simply avoid them.

Groovy is many times slowers than pure Java, and the same you an say about Ruby.

Kico Lobo