[HN Gopher] Ruby website redesigned
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ruby website redesigned
        
       Author : psxuaw
       Score  : 341 points
       Date   : 2025-12-21 07:06 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.ruby-lang.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.ruby-lang.org)
        
       | elcapitan wrote:
       | Meta, but it's kind of ironic that the main Ruby language website
       | shows a "0%" Ruby symbol with javascript deactivated, and doesn't
       | even show the code examples, which are all just links to some
       | sandbox anyway.
        
         | chrisandchris wrote:
         | It annoys me so much when developers think they can do it
         | better and link with JavaScript. Interactions (like opening a
         | dialog) witj JS - yes. Navigating to sites/positions in-site -
         | that is just dumb. So many pages break the "open in new tab"
         | behaviour with this implementation.
        
       | Syzygies wrote:
       | Nice! There is a Japanese feel to the lead graphic, their
       | prevalence of cartoon imagery, that one might not recognize
       | without having traveled in Japan.
       | 
       | Is the design debate public? I'd imagine it would make great
       | reading.
        
         | lloeki wrote:
         | The top right character definitely looks like Matz!
        
       | troupo wrote:
       | So, in order to show a single download link it needs to load an
       | animation with visible loading progress even on a gigabit
       | connection. It takes a few seconds to appear. All to show a
       | scaling animation that can be achieved with a couple of lines of
       | CSS.
       | 
       | Same for absolutely static code examples that take a few seconds
       | to load and shift the content away.
       | 
       | Why?
        
         | sixtyj wrote:
         | You are a rare species, on the verge of extinction.
         | 
         | Unfortunately, most people today probably don't care about what
         | you're talking about. (I do, but I've decided not to comment on
         | it anymore, because it would probably drive me crazy :)
        
           | 0x073 wrote:
           | The site is for developers and most of the rare species are
           | developers.
           | 
           | The designer fail to target their audience.
        
             | dijit wrote:
             | Ruby is not targeting those kind of developers though.
             | 
             | It's C/C++ developers that typically prefer a no-fluff
             | approach.
        
               | pjmlp wrote:
               | As polyglot developer, I am also for a no-fluff approach
               | and vanilajs for the win.
               | 
               | One of the reasons Next.js is attractive to me, is
               | exactly they have rediscovered why so many of us have
               | stayed with SSR.
        
               | christophilus wrote:
               | > no-fluff ... Next.js
               | 
               | Hmm. We can agree to disagree on the definition of fluff.
        
               | pjmlp wrote:
               | Sure, if you ignore the SSR and SSG part, which sadly
               | most nodejs stuff lacks.
               | 
               | Additionally, Next.js should only be used when SaaS
               | product vendor doesn't allow for any other option, which
               | sadly is the case when making themselves sellable to
               | magpie developers, while riding VC money until the IPO
               | takes off.
               | 
               | I rather deliver, than do yak shaving, but at least can
               | deliver only HTML and CSS if I chose to.
        
         | timeon wrote:
         | > couple of lines of CSS
         | 
         | This is bit too much to ask. Just check the source it is
         | swollen with Tailwind.
        
           | troupo wrote:
           | Tailwind maps directly to CSS (well, it is pure CSS) and
           | doesn't require a loading progress for a one-line animation:
           | https://tailwindcss.com/docs/animation
        
             | timeon wrote:
             | Sure but if someones duplicates 50x this:
             | 
             | > flex-shrink-0 transition-transform duration-300
             | hover:scale-105 w-[160px] h-[144px] 2xl:w-[200px]
             | 2xl:h-[180px]
             | 
             | just to avoid CSS, not sure they would bother with CSS
             | animation.
        
       | continuational wrote:
       | Not long ago I was looking through programming language sites to
       | figure out how to best introduce the language I'm working on.
       | 
       | ruby-lang.com stood out with a text in a big font:
       | 
       | Ruby is...
       | 
       | Followed by a paragraph about what makes Ruby special. I think
       | that was an exceptionally simple and natural way of introducing
       | something as complex as a programming language.
        
         | ModernMech wrote:
         | "Programmer's best friend" is precisely the wrong thing to do
         | though (it says nothing and only makes the reader confused. Are
         | we talking about a language or a pet? I'm not looking for a
         | friend.). They took a step back with that.
         | 
         | For reference this is the old one, which is much better:
         | https://www.ruby-lang.org/images/about/screenshot-ruby-lang-...
         | From: https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/about/website/
         | 
         | The old one was better because it said something about what the
         | language is and how it benefits the user. "Best friend" is not
         | descriptive. "dynamic language with minimal syntax that is easy
         | to read and write" at least tells me something about Ruby, its
         | priorities, and value proposition. I'm very concerned about a
         | language that claims it wants to be my friend.
        
           | port11 wrote:
           | Dunno, it's a comfy tagline. I never got into Ruby but it
           | always feels to me like it's a really ergonomic and cozy
           | language. Sure, the best friend thing is a stretch, but it's
           | honestly a slogan. How many people land on this page with no
           | knowledge of what Ruby is and will confuse it with an app to
           | make friends?
        
       | zhisme wrote:
       | Well well well. Now can we stop arguing about ruby death? It is
       | even got a site redesign! What a fresh look. Previous design was
       | from 2005?
        
       | ifndbdb wrote:
       | wow that loads slow
       | 
       | I like the design and content. Being able to immediately try a
       | language online is huge
       | 
       | But there has to be a way to load that content in a progressive
       | manner. Loading a static version first and then hydrating the
       | content if you need interactive actions
        
         | monooso wrote:
         | It's as fast as HN for me.
        
           | DetroitThrow wrote:
           | If you break out the Lighthouse perf score it's more visible.
           | It's between 2 and 3 orders of magnitude slower than HN for
           | me.
        
       | Kwpolska wrote:
       | So many Web designers put zero thought into how their page looks
       | when it is not loaded or not scrolled exactly past the trigger.
       | So many sites say "0 happy customers", because someone thought
       | showing incrementing numbers is cool. On this page, it opens up
       | with a "100%" loading indicator, for a site that appears to have
       | no interactivity that would require JS, just to show a pointless
       | animation.
        
         | MrJohz wrote:
         | Yeah, I thought those code samples would run immediately, in
         | which case maybe the loading would be justified (although
         | surely very easy to avoid). Instead, they're links to a
         | different page that has the same code sample and a link to run
         | the code, meaning I need to press twice to see what the code
         | does when it runs, which isn't a lot but is surely at least one
         | (possibly two) clicks more than necessary.
         | 
         | That said, it's cool seeing some of those samples, because
         | they're honestly not really what I expected. For example, I
         | didn't expect the list subtraction to work at a set operation,
         | so seeing that example gives me a feel for what sort of things
         | I can do with Ruby code.
        
           | ModernMech wrote:
           | > I need to press twice to see what the code does when it
           | runs, which isn't a lot
           | 
           | I don't know the exact numbers, but the figures show you lose
           | a high percentage of viewers with each click. So if you have
           | 100 people who view the first page, 10 of them might click
           | the link to the second page, and only 1 of them might click
           | the link to the third page. If having customers view the
           | running code is crucial, you'd want it on the very first
           | page, above the fold.
        
         | firefax wrote:
         | I really like the 90s-esque aesthetic of sites like HN.
         | 
         | Low bandwidth, minimal in an artistic way.
         | 
         | I wish less sites would try to make them look like a wordpress
         | from the early twenty aughts.
        
           | Elfener wrote:
           | You don't even need to do a certain aesthetic to make your
           | website fast. Just send your entire content in the HTML,
           | instead of needing extra HTTP requests for JS and then more
           | HTML before having all the stuff for your first render.
        
             | firefax wrote:
             | [matrix voice]
             | 
             | What if I told you that you don't _need_ javascript?
        
         | librasteve wrote:
         | I am sure that the designers had to juggle a massive amount of
         | community input and feedback and I know that this is not easy.
         | Kudos to them for (i) leading with some very apt code examples,
         | (ii) the 4 "whys" and (iii) the multilingual support.
         | 
         | Speaking from experience (recently we rebuilt
         | https://raku.org), I am sure that they will come back and
         | optimize, but tbh this is not the priority with a new site
         | where the hits will top out at ~ 10k / hour.
         | 
         | I am no great fan of animations, simpler is better imho - and I
         | have resisted requests to add a sandbox to the Raku site since
         | https://glot.io/new/raku does such a good job anyway... but I
         | think Ruby is likely to appeal to a wider audience via a cool
         | design vibe, whereas Raku is still in the early adopter / geek
         | phase of adoption.
         | 
         | btw Ruby is a fantastic language!
        
           | troupo wrote:
           | > I am sure that they will come back and optimize, but tbh
           | this is not the priority with a new site where the hits will
           | top out at ~ 10k / hour.
           | 
           | You don't need to "come back and optimize" if you don't start
           | with needing a progress indicator for a "transform: scale"
           | animation to display a single static download link. The
           | number of hits is not relevant.
           | 
           | Neither do you need to do three separate fetch requests for
           | static plain text examples that you then laboriously dump
           | into the DOM by creating dummy elements, putting content in
           | there, then looking up and cloning `code` tags to then dump
           | those code tags on the page.
        
             | port11 wrote:
             | I think you might have an issue with modern frontend
             | practices. That's okay, but there's a disproportionate
             | amount of hate towards Ruby's redesigned page. And it looks
             | perfectly fine. HTPP/2 parallel requests aren't that big a
             | deal, all things considered.
             | 
             | The website looks cool to me, makes me want to try Ruby.
        
               | braiamp wrote:
               | He doesn't hate Ruby's redesigned page. He is complaining
               | about yet another example of waste of resources that
               | clients have to do because you want your page look
               | "dynamic". Please, make sure and be aware were these
               | comments are being posted, a site that it's both
               | "dynamic" and doesn't require much resources from the
               | client.
        
               | troupo wrote:
               | This is a page that appeared on HN front page news.
               | 
               | So what do you expect? People ignoring the frankly
               | idiotic choices made that you now defend with "they will
               | come back and optimize it"?
               | 
               | > HTPP/2 parallel requests aren't that big a deal, all
               | things considered.
               | 
               | I literally see a progress counter that is for some
               | reason required to display the most trivial animation to
               | show ... a single static link. On a gigabit connection.
               | All that takes up to two seconds.
               | 
               | On that same connection the same thing happen to three
               | purely three static examples of code that somehow need up
               | to two seconds to appear and to shift the entire content
               | of the page.
               | 
               | Both are especially jarring on mobile.
        
           | tempaccsoz5 wrote:
           | I once tried to try Raku years ago, but I was left really
           | confused by the website and docs.
           | 
           | Clicking through the code examples on your new website, I
           | kept being amazed at some of the great things Raku does. It's
           | night and day in understanding the uses and purpose of the
           | language! Thank you.
           | 
           | Unfortunately, as soon as I click into the "introduction"
           | section of the docs I'm abandoned to a wall of links and am
           | once again lost. I'll try persevere this time, but I think
           | you could do adoption of Raku a great favour by working on
           | organising your docs site a bit more clearly. Astro's docs
           | are an amazing case-study on best-in-class docs layout and
           | writing: https://docs.astro.build/en/getting-started/
        
         | zelphirkalt wrote:
         | Yep, and for such cases it is usually very easy to make it work
         | properly, if only a web developer put a little thought to it.
         | We have most or all of the tools we need in HTML and APIs to
         | make it work regardless. Like for example for the happy
         | customer counter one could easily have a noscript fallback,
         | that uses the number one already needs to retrieve to show the
         | animation, but puts it there immediately. Then, iff JS gets
         | executed, one can still animate the shit out of it.
         | 
         | It is part of what distinguishes actually good web devs from
         | move fast and break everything kind of people.
        
           | efilife wrote:
           | The noscript would not be needed at all. The value could be
           | the real one by default, then in js set to 0 and incremented
        
             | zelphirkalt wrote:
             | True, in this case even easier!
             | 
             | I guess I thought of noscript due to other cases I had
             | recently, where I noscript-ed a whole workflow and
             | displayed elements, that should never appear, when JS is
             | running.
        
         | mb2100 wrote:
         | It even loads the code snippets in separate HTTP requests :-(
         | But the snippets themselves are really good! I'm going to
         | update mine on https://mastrojs.github.io
        
       | Hackbraten wrote:
       | I wonder why Sandi Metz is missing in the testimonial section.
       | One of the most influential persons in software analysis and
       | design in the Rubyverse.
        
         | rpdillon wrote:
         | Had the same exact thought. That DHH was included and Sandy was
         | not really surprised me.
        
           | jrochkind1 wrote:
           | I think dhh's quote just isn't very good -- of course someone
           | who has so much identity invested in the ecosystem is going
           | to say "I looked around and still nothing is better than
           | ruby!" Well maybe not even of course, not even every "BDL" is
           | as cringingly self-promotional as dhh, some have a bit of
           | humility.
           | 
           | i agree it's not a great look.
           | 
           | Hopefully the website will keep getting regularly updated and
           | tweaked (software, is a living organism!), instead of being
           | frozen in amber for a decade like the last version!
        
           | tovej wrote:
           | Yeah, DHH's inclusion is not a good look. Apparently people
           | in this thread are upset that people are pointing that out?
           | 
           | Why would you want someone known for political hijinx and
           | hateful speech as your face? How is that supposed to draw in
           | new people?
        
           | ecshafer wrote:
           | DHH is the lead developer of the most popular ruby web
           | framework, Sandy is the author of a mildly popular book. Not
           | knocking her work, but DHH is magnitudes more influential.
        
         | busterarm wrote:
         | Sandi is also "moderately retired" -- hasn't done a speaking
         | engagement in 5 years -- a blog post in longer...
         | 
         | Sometimes it's nice to just let people rest and get on with
         | life.
        
       | weiwenhao wrote:
       | Very nice, my nature-lang references the old ruby design, now
       | maybe I can reference the new one.
        
       | novoreorx wrote:
       | Refreshing and delightful! I know how the home page looks doesn't
       | reflect the programming itself, but this design really makes me
       | want to try Ruby again :)
        
         | latexr wrote:
         | > I know how the home page looks doesn't reflect the
         | programming itself
         | 
         | It does reflect what the language creators pay attention to.
         | Way back when, when I was undecided between learning Python or
         | Ruby, after visiting countless resources I noticed Ruby
         | websites in general looked way nicer and clearer than Python
         | websites, so I picked Ruby. Now, years of experience with both
         | languages later, I have zero doubt that to me that was the
         | right choice at the time. I would've been frustrated with
         | Python to no end.
         | 
         | I no longer need either language regularly, but given the
         | choice again I would not hesitate to go for Ruby.
         | 
         | All that said, I do agree with some other comments on the
         | thread regarding the disappointing reliance on JavaScript here.
         | Should just be static.
        
       | Someone wrote:
       | On my iPad, without scrolling, the screen shows almost nothing,
       | just a download button and some text that, I think users will
       | ignore. I think that's a waste of valuable screen estate.
       | 
       | Also, apart from a quote from David Heinemeier Hansson the home
       | page doesn't even mention that ruby is a programming language.
       | 
       | For comparison, the following all mention that above the fold,
       | with a short phrase indicating what you would want to use the
       | language.
       | 
       | - https://www.python.org/ has _"Python is a programming language
       | that lets you work quickly and integrate systems more
       | effectively. Learn More"_
       | 
       | - https://www.perl.org/ has _"Perl is a highly capable, feature-
       | rich programming language with over 37 years of development"_
       | 
       | - https://www.php.net/ has _"A popular general-purpose scripting
       | language that is especially suited to web development. Fast,
       | flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to
       | the most popular websites in the world."_
       | 
       | - https://www.swift.org/ has _"Swift is the powerful, flexible,
       | multiplatform programming language. Fast. Expressive. Safe."_
        
       | hit8run wrote:
       | Ruby is GOATED. You can say what you want but Ruby coupled with
       | Rails is the most productive web stack period.
       | 
       | Why you might ask? - Omakase Stack - high level is good for
       | business processes - modern concepts without JS ecosystem churn -
       | great testing capabilities - great ecosystem - highly effective
       | stack for LLMs (conventions)
       | 
       | Is it fast in Benchmark Games - not by any means. Will you be
       | able to finish projects and make money with it? Absolutely.
        
       | jarek83 wrote:
       | I like how it looks. I don't like to see how badly it is crafted
       | tech-wise - not optimized images by size and deferring, JS for
       | things that work natively in the browser, bloat of tailwind
       | instead of nice clean and modern CSS.
       | 
       | Knowing ruby I can tell that the relaxed approach to the website
       | does not correspond with sophistication in the language itself.
       | If I wouldn't know ruby, that would be a put off for me, thinking
       | that if they don't want to convince me tech-wise by their site,
       | it might be similarly annoying to deep-dive into the language.
        
         | igravious wrote:
         | > not optimized images by size and deferring, JS for things
         | that work natively in the browser, bloat of tailwind instead of
         | nice clean and modern CSS.
         | 
         | care to elaborate?
        
           | jarek83 wrote:
           | Sure:
           | 
           | - images: none are visible above the fold - all should be
           | lazy loaded (like it is done with all conference images) and
           | the pragdave.jpeg one does not need to be that large;
           | 
           | - JS: navigation toggle, including chevron rotation can be
           | done in CSS using :has combined with checkbox/radio input.
           | Similarly for header-navigation and theme-toggle (here
           | combined with cookie store). Then toc.js - seems like
           | something easy to do in the backend. Hero-animation - I
           | haven't looked much through it but seems like at least some
           | parts can be done in CSS;
           | 
           | - CSS/tailwind - well it would probably take less typing to
           | do it just in CSS, the site does not seem to be that much
           | componentized to benefit from tailwind.
        
             | azangru wrote:
             | > Similarly for header-navigation and theme-toggle
             | 
             | The theme toggle has three states. How do you model this
             | with a checkbox?
        
               | jarek83 wrote:
               | It could be done with :indeterminate state (so key in a
               | cookie would be absent or removed when switching), but
               | I'd probably would do it with radios instead
        
               | SquareWheel wrote:
               | Note that a checkbox's indeterminate state can only be
               | set via JavaScript, so that lessens the elegance of a
               | CSS-based approach.
               | 
               | I agree that using radios would be better. Or just
               | prefers-color-scheme, which sidesteps the FOUT issue that
               | often occurs when storing theme settings in localStorage.
        
               | bmacho wrote:
               | It's possible to have a 3-states CSS switch/slider that
               | controls site theme. Google it or ask AI assistant.
        
               | Elfener wrote:
               | Why does a site even need a light/dark toggle, when you
               | can just use prefers-color-scheme in CSS, and the user
               | can select that in their browser settings?
               | 
               | (Also, technically, alternative stylesheets can be
               | defined in HTML, except every browser except Firefox
               | removed it: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
               | US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/...)
        
               | azangru wrote:
               | > Why does a site even need a light/dark toggle, when you
               | can just use prefers-color-scheme in CSS, and the user
               | can select that in their browser settings?
               | 
               | Good question, especially since the Ruby site already
               | does this by default. Perhaps the argument is that one of
               | the two color schemes may be designed so poorly that the
               | user may want to manually switch to the other one.
        
               | ameliaquining wrote:
               | Because being able to switch from light to dark mode by
               | clicking a single button is a useful feature, and while
               | it would be nice if operating systems provided this out
               | of the box, many (e.g., Windows) do not.
        
               | jasonlotito wrote:
               | Because as a user, I want to change the light/dark of
               | your site, not every set, and not my OS. If you don't
               | have a toggle, you are making assumptions that aren't
               | accurate.
        
       | mkl95 wrote:
       | The Lighthouse report is telling. It scores 100% for Best
       | practices and SEO, but 54% for Performance. Pages like these used
       | to be caricatures of the modern web, but are now acceptable.
       | DHH's statement doesn't help either.
        
         | mabedan wrote:
         | I dreaded the thought of scrolling down because I knew I'm
         | gonna stumble upon his face.
        
           | prh8 wrote:
           | the only thing his statement was missing was thank you for
           | your attention to this matter
        
         | lelandfe wrote:
         | Honestly, the synthetic Lighthouse tests would be great but for
         | the fact that they're using Google Fonts. It's like the only
         | major thing in their critical path.
        
       | mabedan wrote:
       | Loading percentage in the middle? I haven't seen one of those
       | since Micromedia flash days.
        
         | mrcwinn wrote:
         | Macromedia!
        
       | auxide wrote:
       | This is just straight-up unappealing, really gaudy, if that's the
       | right word. Otherwise I can't put it into words well.
        
       | Alifatisk wrote:
       | I like the new design, however, I strongly believe the website
       | could've been optimized further and used much less JS. Opening
       | the website with JS turned off makes the code examples not load
       | and the front page freezes as "0%" loading.
       | 
       | What does it do exactly? It just fetches[1] to another part of
       | site and retrieves static text[2] to be displayed. This part
       | could've been kept as part of the html, no need for this
       | artificial loading. It's not a webapp, it's a website.
       | 
       | 1. https://www.ruby-lang.org/javascripts/try-ruby-examples.js
       | 
       | 2. https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/examples/i_love_ruby
       | 
       | In this day and age, it is possible to have an appealing,
       | responsive, lightweight website with no JS (maybe except for
       | darkmode toggle).
        
         | lelandfe wrote:
         | > used much less JS
         | 
         | The homepage loads 9.7kB of JS. Navigating to every single link
         | in the main nav results in no additional JS being loaded.
         | 
         | The site is fine.
        
           | spiralganglion wrote:
           | This page doesn't need JS. It doesn't need a loading
           | indicator for said JS. It could just be html and css,
           | otherwise unchanged.
        
             | satvikpendem wrote:
             | Sometimes people want things we don't need. It doesn't
             | _need_ Javascript but it allows certain nice to have
             | features, like instantaneous page loads.
        
               | Alifatisk wrote:
               | > it allows certain nice to have features, like
               | instantaneous page loads
               | 
               | Right, but I do not think this is the case here
        
           | self_awareness wrote:
           | Home pages: Ruby 4.3mb, Python 1.3mb, java.com 2.1mb,
           | raku.org 360kb, typescript 2.1mb
        
             | lelandfe wrote:
             | Yeah but them's highway miles. I have much less care about
             | a site loading images than the stuff that makes the mobile
             | nav work. Images are pretty!
             | 
             | For instance, here's Python's 144kB JS-powered homepage
             | mid-load: https://imgur.com/a/OvYVAMS
             | 
             | And theirs doesn't even have any pretty images! That said,
             | Ruby really ought to give those images a compress.
        
         | bmacho wrote:
         | Darkmode toggle can be (and usually is) achieved by CSS.
        
           | Alifatisk wrote:
           | And the state of it persist across page loads or tabs?
        
             | bmacho wrote:
             | No. It might, depending on what your browser does, but it's
             | not in the web standard.
             | 
             | But you can have a button that saves your state when you
             | enable javascript, and doesn't save your state (but still
             | works) when you disable javascript.
             | 
             | edit: I think it is possible to save your state on the
             | second click. So the UX is: you have 3 options with a
             | slide. You click one of them, the page theme changes, and
             | the option icon becomes a padlock. You click on it again,
             | and the option is saved.
             | 
             | It seems to be a limitation that without javascript a
             | single click can't change a switch and do something else--
             | make a request to set a cookie. But you can do changing
             | style on first click, then setting a cookie on the second.
             | Here's a demo (written by Claude) (it doesn't work without
             | server, just the HTML part)
             | https://jsfiddle.net/r134vgo7/3/
        
         | satvikpendem wrote:
         | I like instantaneous page loads after the initial first page
         | load, which is what the JS does here. Hard to do so without it.
        
           | troupo wrote:
           | wat
        
           | bmacho wrote:
           | I don't think that JS does any preloading. When I open the
           | front page and I click somewhere it loads normally for me,
           | and it downloads the whole page content, after my click
           | (desktop, Firefox).
        
       | Hendrikto wrote:
       | Very form over function, with JS for everything, including static
       | content, and bad performance. This signifies what's wrong with
       | "modern" webdev.
        
       | rubiii wrote:
       | Putting DHH right next to Matz must be some kind of sick joke
        
         | Arubis wrote:
         | Quickly followed by folks talking about a warm and welcoming
         | community. Which in fairness, is true! DHH is the
         | counterexample. Platforming him in 2025 seems nonsensical.
        
           | TrappedInCorner wrote:
           | Why is platforming him in 2025 nonsensical?
        
             | prh8 wrote:
             | platforming him at all is nonsensical if you want to claim
             | to have a kind and/or welcoming community
        
       | aristofun wrote:
       | I don't know what others are complaining about here, it loads for
       | me as fast as this HN, but looks nicer.
        
       | artursapek wrote:
       | not a serious language, not a serious website. very fitting
        
         | replwoacause wrote:
         | Really? I thought GitHub and Shopify used it. Hard to imagine
         | billion dollar companies choosing an unserious language to
         | power their businesses.
        
       | kshahkshah wrote:
       | I used cursor over the past three weeks to update a 12 year-old
       | Ruby on rails project. While it has been slightly updated
       | throughout the years, this was my first proper modernization of
       | the code base.
       | 
       | It's been a real pleasure getting back into Ruby after so many
       | years in typescript, python, and rust.
       | 
       | Happy to see the update. Real shame about the haters here, the
       | Ruby community is a supportive and positive bunch that has
       | shipped real products while others seem to worship at the altar
       | of computer science alone... that's about as counter snarky as I
       | want to be here
        
         | scruple wrote:
         | I spent ~16 years with Ruby (as a non-primary language for the
         | first 5 years, but then as my primary for the remainder), from
         | ~2006/2007 til 2022/2023. I had a couple of hours free to spin
         | up new personal project this morning. At first I was going to
         | default to Python since I use it heavily at work. On a whim, I
         | decided to see what Ruby 3.4 has to offer since it's been a few
         | years. I am very happy with that decision. I really miss Ruby
         | the language a lot, it's such a joy to work with.
        
       | pmkary wrote:
       | I loved the old website. It was one of the few "good old things"
       | I used to check out when I got nostalgic. What a waste...
        
       | jrochkind1 wrote:
       | So much better. The website was looking like abandonware, which
       | was not helpful in projecting ruby as an actual thriving
       | ecosystem.
        
       | asmor wrote:
       | DHH praising himself in the testimonials, funny.
        
       | mindaslab wrote:
       | Looks like base camp website.
        
       | mindaslab wrote:
       | Feels like base camp website.
        
       | mindaslab wrote:
       | Lol, it does not load when JavaScript is disables. I wonder if
       | Ruby still sticks to Free Software principles.
        
       | tiffanyh wrote:
       | The old site as a comparison.
       | 
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20251113164224/https://www.ruby-...
        
         | InsideOutSanta wrote:
         | That's certainly less fancy and looks outdated, but it's a lot
         | more functional.
        
           | unethical_ban wrote:
           | Outdated meaning not flashy, but the layout is great. Here's
           | what this is, here is are news, here's all the resources you
           | need to get started.
        
       | djoldman wrote:
       | Is there a manifesto out there saying that one should build with
       | html and only if needed add css then svg then js?
       | 
       | It seems this site doesn't work so well without JS.
        
         | InsideOutSanta wrote:
         | I think this is the first time I've seen a website where the
         | download button, which is just a link, requires JavaScript to
         | render.
        
       | hessart wrote:
       | Maybe it was vibe coded, considering that Claude is the #3
       | committer in the website's repo[1].
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/ruby/www.ruby-
       | lang.org/graphs/contributor...
        
         | Alifatisk wrote:
         | Claude is on the list because some commits by users have "Co-
         | Authored-By: Claude ...". Does not necessarily have to be vibe
         | coded.
        
       | librasteve wrote:
       | I thought it would be interesting to try the showcase examples in
       | Raku (since I am always saying how good Raku's imitation of Ruby
       | is)...                 - https://glot.io/snippets/he42jpfm27
       | - https://glot.io/snippets/he42trx6w6       -
       | https://glot.io/snippets/he434b6ryj
       | 
       | Obviously Raku leans more to `{}` and `my $var` than Ruby - but
       | otherwise I think it does a credible job. Obviously these are
       | carefully chosen Ruby snippets to highlit its unique abilities in
       | strings, "array math" and classes. On the string interpolation, I
       | would say that Raku has the slight edge (and has the whole
       | Q-slang for a lot of fine grained control). On the array math, I
       | had to apply the (built in) Raku set diff operator ... so I guess
       | that Ruby is a little more natural for this (rather quirky)
       | feature. On the class stuff, again very close. Raku has much more
       | powerful OO under the hood ... multi-inheritance, role-
       | composition, punning, mixins, MOP, and yet is a delight to use in
       | this lightweight way.
        
         | christophilus wrote:
         | Man. Haven't thought about Raku for a while. Does it have a
         | good web framework these days?
        
       | t1234s wrote:
       | I'm glad to see they didn't use wordpress.
        
       | yoan9224 wrote:
       | The site looks great visually but the technical implementation is
       | disappointing. Here's what's wrong:
       | 
       | 1. Code examples are fetched via JS instead of being in the HTML.
       | They're static text - there's zero reason for this.
       | 
       | 2. The "0%" loading spinner blocks everything. It's literally
       | just displaying a download button and some text.
       | 
       | 3. With JS disabled, you get nothing. A language website should
       | be the poster child for progressive enhancement.
       | 
       | The irony is that Ruby itself has always emphasized developer
       | happiness and doing things "the right way." This site feels like
       | it was built with the modern JS framework mindset rather than the
       | Ruby philosophy.
       | 
       | Still, huge improvement over the 2005-era design. Just wish
       | they'd optimized it properly.
        
       | ModernMech wrote:
       | The number of times Matz is mentioned and depicted on the
       | homepage is offputting. MINASWAN feels too close to WWJD for me.
       | I can't think of another programming language community that does
       | this, and I'm including Wolfram in that assessment.
        
       | zaitsev1393 wrote:
       | I don't get the people who complain about the website not working
       | with disabled js. Maybe I miss something and a large part of
       | users disable / have js disabled in their browsers for some
       | reason? Why the target audience of the ruby, probably primary web
       | developers, whould do that? Or is this a some kind of secret
       | handshake so community accept you (to build a website that can
       | work with no js)?
        
         | MyOutfitIsVague wrote:
         | It's a common philosophy for developers with standards of
         | robustness and accessibility to not hard depend on js for
         | things that don't need js to function.
         | 
         | > Why the target audience of the ruby, probably primary web
         | developers, whould do that?
         | 
         | In my experience, it's mostly web developers who care about
         | this in the first place.
        
           | azuanrb wrote:
           | > mostly web developers who care about this in the first
           | place.
           | 
           | I'm not sure what you mean by this. We care about our users
           | and how they use our websites. JavaScript is everywhere and
           | has been the de facto frontend standard for the past few
           | years. Supporting no-JS is starting to feel like supporting a
           | new browser. As much as I'd like to, from a business and
           | product point of view, the numbers are just too small for us
           | to even consider it.
        
           | zaitsev1393 wrote:
           | I can understand the aspiration to have the system that can
           | be run from the lowest level out of box tools, but then, I am
           | doing frontend for almost a decade and this is porbably the
           | first time I'm seeing such attention to this specific 'no js'
           | use case, as in this thread.
           | 
           | Maybe I'm not reading enough webdev forums. I agree though
           | that things that don't required js should be written in no js
           | way.
        
         | paradox460 wrote:
         | It's become a bit of a shibboleth to have js disabled, and brag
         | loudly about how that breaks much of the Internet. It's a weird
         | form of nerd signaling
        
       | self_awareness wrote:
       | I really wanted to like Ruby, but the ecosystem is just...
       | broken.
       | 
       | Comparing to Python, where virtualenv is de facto default, and
       | pyls works by default, the experience with Ruby is not that
       | great.
       | 
       | New website looks like a website for a startup project that will
       | be closed in 2 years.
        
         | prh8 wrote:
         | What is broken in your mind? What things did you have a "not
         | that great" experience with? There are de facto standards and
         | defaults in Ruby as well.
        
           | self_awareness wrote:
           | Well, for starters, I never got LSP to properly work with
           | Ruby at the same level as other languages, i.e. so it's
           | possible to browse the standard library.
        
             | azuanrb wrote:
             | Which LSP are you using? I'm using both solargraph and
             | ruby-lsp and both works fine by me (in neovim).
             | 
             | Although those who really care about LSP support usually
             | will use RubyMine IDE instead. Some of my colleagues are
             | going that route, and they're mostly coming from Java (or
             | similar background)
        
               | self_awareness wrote:
               | I'm not really "using it", I'm just trying every now and
               | then, and I keep encountering errors, hangups, and lack
               | of functionality. Now I've tried ruby-lsp, and it just
               | sits there on "Starting Ruby LSP...\n"
               | 
               | Couldn't even install Solargraph, once it errors out with
               | 'Kernel#require': cannot load such file -- yard, other
               | time it installs, but "solargraph scan" fails in runtime
               | with "missing gem date" error.
               | 
               | Sorbet doesn't even work in VSCode, some bugs are over 5
               | years old.
               | 
               | But yeah, downvote my original post, because apparently
               | all of the above is obviously my fault.
               | 
               | RubyMine was paid until recently, now it's free only for
               | non-commercial use. It's also not really suitable for
               | small scripting.
               | 
               | Historically, one insanely huge advantage of Ruby was
               | that it was pre-installed on macOS'es, but I think
               | they've stopped doing that since some macOS version.
        
       | omoikane wrote:
       | I see that this coincides with Ruby 3.4.8 release[1]. I wonder we
       | will get another Ruby release on 2025-12-25, since Ruby has made
       | a Christmas day release for 13 consecutive years[2].
       | 
       | [1] https://www.ruby-
       | lang.org/en/news/2025/12/17/ruby-3-4-8-rele...
       | 
       | [2] https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/releases/
        
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       (page generated 2025-12-21 23:00 UTC)