

Should I switch to Ruby? - devs1010

Hopefully a question like this can be useful to more people than just me, basically I'm someone who likes to create, both at my job and in my own projects and to do so efficiently. I've been working primarily as a Java developer the last couple years and there are things about the language that are great and necessary for some types of projects but I can't help but think sometimes it just ends up making for a lot of drudgery and the whole culture around doing java dev is a bit stodgy, I'm fairly young, just a few years dev experience basically wondering if transitioning to Ruby may open up my career a bit, would be interested to hear from anyone who has done something similar.. More and more lately I've been finding its hard to feel, think and operate like a hacker when working just in Java
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kls
Java is an enterprise technology, if you are going to stay in the enterprise
then by all means Java is the way to go, it is not going anywhere for a long
time. That being said, by your post I can tell that that is not where you want
to be. A lot of people will say just use what you know, but ignoring trends
does not make them go away. There is a reality and that reality is there is a
lot of cool problems that are being solved and that work is not happening in
Java. There are cool problems being solved in Java don't get me wrong, but
what you you are looking for, is easier found in other language cultures. It
is a reality whether we like it or not. That being said there are ways to
leverage your Java knowledge and still move towards that culture. Specifically
there are two languages that utilize the JVM and the existing Java libs they
are Scala and Clojure. I recently made the full switch over to Clojure because
I want to work on something else, and it has been a great experience. While it
is not as popular as Ruby, the work available for the market it some of the
most impressive projects I have seen. This was a big factor in my choosing it
as a technology to invest my time in and it is a very valid reason to do so.
Anyways point being yes you should absolutely learn Ruby if the market seems
to be solving problems that you want to work on, but in saying that there are
some other really cool languages out there running on-top of the JVM that some
interesting work is available for, if you just want to get into interesting
work, you might want to take a minute to investigate the others because your
experience with the JVM and Java libs will give you a head start in moving
over to them.

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devs1010
Thanks for the reply.. I agree Scala and Clojure are interesting but Ruby
seems to be the most in-demand so would like to pick it up first, I have used
JRuby a bit and being able to use Java when necessary I think would definitely
be beneficial, but overall it seems doing a lot of web apps in Java may not be
as good idea as I had originally thought

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kls
_but Ruby seems to be the most in-demand so would like to pick it up first_

One thing to remember is that almost every field is undeserved as far as
developers go, so all most all languages have more jobs available than their
are people to fill the roles. While I agree you have to ensure that their is a
market for your interest, most of the first and second tier languages have
plenty of market to not be a risky proposition.

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KoryFerbet
Judging by the roles that I'm currently working on, having Ruby is a definite
plus. Another strong option would be Python, from what I can tell the syntax
is similar but most clients are definitely looking for one of those two in
addition to your Java.

It also depends what types of companies you want to work for. Most of the
startups I work with are looking for Ruby and Python with a Java background
where as most the larger older companies are fine bringing on someone with
just Java.

I hope that helps a bit and wasn't too much of a ramble.

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devs1010
Actually, I used Python a bit before getting into Java, I think at this point
Ruby seems more appealing, it would be nice to find a role at some point after
I learn Ruby to where I can still benefit from my Java experience. Just doing
Java, though, I guess I'm starting to feel a bit stifled.. just reading job
ads for Ruby vs. Java is such a world of difference, most employers looking
for Java devs def have the 'old school' mentality

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KoryFerbet
As I said, I think the most important thing to decide is what you want to work
on. Research Python roles and research Ruby roles, which of the two look like
things you'd want to be working with/on? That should be your decision! I know
the majority of Python roles I work on tend to pick Python for it's speed so
they are generally more for hosting platforms or system development. Ruby
roles tend to be the focus for more web development. As I said, those are just
what I've seen here in Seattle.

