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Python and Ruby - the Newer Alternatives!

FREE ARTICLE # 39

Thanks to the nature of open source, almost anyone can write a programming language and get a significant number of people to use it: and plenty of people have. Two of the newest and fastest-growing players when it comes to open source web languages are Python and Ruby.

Neither of them were web languages originally - they were normal programming languages, but more and more people are starting to use them to power their websites.

So what are they, and how do they work?

Let's take a look.

Python.

The Python philosophy demands that code should be simple, explicit, and readable. Where Perl wants there to be "more than one way to do it", Python wants there to be only one way of doing each thing - and it wants that way to be obvious. This makes Python code easy to work with, whether it was written by you or by someone else.

The downside to Python, though, is that it can be slow - not as slow as Java, but still much slower than most languages. It is also very picky about indentation (the number of spaces or tabs at the start of each line of code), as part of its effort to make code more readable.

So does anyone use Python?

It might surprise you to learn that Google uses a lot of Python code, and the popular BitTorrent file-sharing system is written in Python.

Unfortunately, when it comes to actual web programming, Python isn't quite up to scratch in many ways: it still shows its roots as a programming language for programs instead of one for the web. It's for this reason that Python on the web is still quite rare - but they're working on it.

Ruby.

Ruby is a relatively new programming language from Japan, and it has a lot of evangelists who simply love it. Why?

Well, it lets you do complicated things quickly, easily and readably with very little code: in some ways. It's powerful but simple.

Here's some sample code, taken from one of the best Ruby books,
Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby (www.poignantguide.net):

['toast', 'cheese', 'wine']. each { |food| print( food.capitalize ) }

What does that do?

Well, first, it creates an array with the words 'toast', 'cheese', and 'wine'.

It then launches into a function, which prints out the name of each food - in capital letters. All that with one line of code. It might not seem like much, but just wait until it comes time to connect to a database, retrieve records, format them the way you want and put them on the screen, all in one easy-to-read line of code.

Now, Ruby is becoming more popular on the web thanks to a web framework that makes developing websites quicker than it's ever been: Ruby on Rails.

Rails is only one year old, but it's already got lots of support, thanks to its big feature it handles the database end of things automatically. Rails is growing at a crazy speed, because programmers love it - it stops you from having to write database code over and over again, leaving you free to worry about how your web page works instead of writing SQL.

Rails works using the principle of "convention over configuration": you do things in a standard way instead of spending time setting it up for the way you've decided to do things. Using Rails' scaffolding function, you can be up and running with a simple database page within minutes - then all you have left to do is build the interface.

Watch Out for Web Host Support.

One of the biggest disadvantages of using a minority programming language is that you might find trouble finding a web host that has it installed on their server. You'll pretty much be forced to go with a smaller host: searching for 'ruby host' or 'python host' will turn up plenty of offers, but they won't be from anyone you've heard of, and they're likely to be more expensive than you'd expect.

That's the price you pay for using the latest and greatest languages.

WEB DESIGN INDEX LISTING

SITE MAP

  1. 6 Reasons Why You Need a Website
  2. How the Web Works
  3. Registering a Domain Name
  4. The Confusing World of Web Hosting - Making Your Decision
  5. How to Set Up Your Hosting in 5 Minutes Flat
  6. Websites and Web logs - What's the Difference?
  7. What Do You Want Your Website to Do?
  8. Hiring Professionals - 5 Things to Look For
  9. Working With Templates
  10. Building a Budget Website
  11. There's More than One Web Browser
  12. Image Formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG and More
  13. The Many Flavours of HTML
  14. Clean Page Structure - Headings and Lists
  15. The Importance of Validation
  16. Avoiding the Nuts and Bolts - Content Management Software
  17. FrontPage - Easy Pages
  18. Dreamweaver - The Professional Touch
  19. What You See Isn't Always What You Get
  20. Why Doing It Yourself is Best
  21. Understanding Web Jargon
  22. Don't Be Scared, It's Only Code - HTML for Beginners
  23. 5 Steps to Understanding HTML
  24. Taking HTML Further
  25. Finding a Good HTML Editor
  26. CSS and the End of Tables
  27. Column Designs with CSS
  28. The Basics of Web Servers
  29. LAMP - The Most Popular Server System Ever
  30. IIS and ASP - Microsoft's Server
  31. Setting up a Test Server on Your Own Computer
  32. How Databases Work
  33. Which Database is Right for You?
  34. Uploading Your Website with FTP
  35. PHP - Easy Dynamic Websites
  36. Perl - Cryptic Power
  37. ColdFusion - Quicker Scripting, at a Price
  38. JSP - Java on Your Server
  39. Python and Ruby - the Newer Alternatives
  40. Taking HTML Further with Javascript
  41. VBScript - Javascript Made Easy
  42. AJAX - Should You Believe the Hype?
  43. The Web Designer's Toolbox
  44. An Introduction to Paint Shop Pro
  45. Photoshop - a Graphic Designer's Dream
  46. Free Graphics Alternatives
  47. How to Install and Configure a Forum
  48. Building Online Communities
  49. Using Quizzes and Games to Get Traffic
  50. Offering Free Downloads on Your Website
  51. Putting Multimedia to Good Use
  52. Opening a Web Shop with E-Commerce Software
  53. 5 Simple Steps to Accepting Payments
  54. Encryption & Security with SSL
  55. The Basics of Web Forms
  56. 7 Ways to Make Your Web Forms Better
  57. The Web is Not Paper
  58. Writing for the Web
  59. A Question of Scroll Bars
  60. Titles and Headlines - It's Not a Newspaper
  61. All About Design - Principles and Elements
  62. Designing for Search Engines
  63. Printing and Sending - the Two Things Users Want to Do
  64. The Art of the Logo
  65. Picking a Colour Scheme
  66. Fonts are More Important Than You Think
  67. Beware the Stock Photographer - Picking Your Pictures
  68. The Smaller, the Better - Avoiding Graphical Overload
  69. An Issue of Width - the Resolution Problem
  70. Why Word is Bad for the Web
  71. The 5 Principles of Effective Navigation
  72. Focus on the User - Task-Oriented Websites
  73. Making Searches Simple
  74. Time for User Testing
  75. Hints All the Way
  76. The Case Against Flash
  77. Using Flash Sensibly
  78. The Evils of PDF's
  79. Why Java Will Drive Your Visitors Away
  80. 5 Ways to Avoid the 1998 Look
  81. Content is King
  82. Why You Should Put Your Content in a Weblog Format
  83. Cut to the Chase - How to Make Your Website Load Faster
  84. How to Run Ads Without Driving Visitors Crazy
  85. Ads Under the Radar - Linking to Affiliates
  86. Text Ads - Unobtrusive Advertising
  87. The Top 10 Biggest Web Design Mistakes
  88. Why You Should Stick to Design Conventions
  89. 10 Easy Ways to Promote Your Website
  90. Making Friends and Influencing People - the Importance of Links
  91. How to Get Your Website Talked About on Blogs
  92. Tracking Your Visitors
  93. RSS - Really Simple Syndication
  94. Taking Your Website Mobile
  95. Registering Your Users by Stealth
  96. How to Make Visitors Add You to Their Favourites
  97. Setting Up a Mailing List
  98. Designing for Sales
  99. It's a World Wide Web - Going International
  100. Some Places to Go For More Information

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