Difference Between Python and Ruby (With Table)

There are so many programming languages with different orientations. Python and Ruby are two programming languages with a slight difference. The former is slightly less object-oriented than the latter. These two languages can be used on any operating system such as Microsoft, IOS, or any version of Linux. Both Linux and Ruby come preinstalled on most Linux Distributions.

Python vs Ruby

The main difference between Python and Ruby is that Python is not entirely object-based programing language whereas ruby is highly object-oriented; even primitive data types are objects when it comes to ruby. Both the languages are interpreted and high-level, general-purpose. However, both languages differ in many ways. Python is more popular than Ruby.

Python is the most popular and widely accepted programing language all around the world. Popular apps such as Instagram, Dropbox, Spotify, etc. are written using the python programming language. The language was developed by Guido Van Rossum who released its first version called Python 0.9.0 in 1991. The language is the successor to the ABC Programming Language.

Ruby was developed by a Japanese national Yukihiro Matsumoto in the year 1995. It is a highly object-oriented programming language that was influenced by Perl, BASIC, etc. The language has been used to write many popular apps such as Airbnb, GitHub, Shopify, etc. It is dynamically typed and garbage-collected. It uses just-in-time compilation.

Comparison Table Between Python and Ruby

Parameters of Comparison

Python

Ruby

Popularity

It is comparably more popular and is taught in a lot of universities.

It is slightly less popular but has a strong loyal base of followers.

Object-oriented

It is not completely object-oriented.

It is fully object-oriented.

Philosophy

It was designed on the philosophy of “one and only one way of doing it”.

It was designed to increase productivity and let programmers enjoy programming.

Typing Discipline

It follows Duck, dynamic, strong, and gradual in all except one CPython typing discipline.

It follows Duck, dynamic, strong typing discipline.

Influence

It is influenced by ABC.

It is influenced by languages like BASIC.

What is Python?

Python is an interpreted programming language that has a large standard library. The library enables the users with a lot of tools that suit their needs. It is one of the strongest features of this language. This language uses Whitespace indentation and is syntactically very easy to understand.

The use of English keywords makes it easier to understand which is not the case in many other languages that use special characters. It has so many implementations such as PyPy, CPython, etc. to name a few.

The name of this language was taken as Python because its creator used to enjoy the comedy group Monty Python while developing it. It is one of the most popular programming languages of all time as it has appeared in the top 10 lists of the TIOBE programming community index.

With a wide range of libraries, it allows its users to use it for AI projects. Different libraries can be used to create different applications. Pygames can be used to create games and libraries such as NumPy, Scipy, etc. can be used for scientific computing. It can also be used as a scripting language.

There are so many large tech companies that are using python such as Wikipedia, Facebook, NASA, Yahoo, Google, etc. that adds to its popularity and justifies the vogue around it.

What is Ruby?

A multi-paradigm programming language ruby is one of the favorites of programmers. It is widely supported across many cloud hosting platforms such as Google cloud platform, Heroku, etc. It has also been used to write some popular online platforms such as GitHub, AirBnB, etc. to name a few.

According to the creator Yukihiro Matsumoto, the programming language was conceived in 1993. It was developed to increase the productivity of its users and make programming fun for them. It was designed to keep its users at the center, not the computers.

MRI (Matz’s Ruby Interpreter) is another name for the original interpreter, which is one of many implementations. Other implementations are YARV, MagLev, Mruby, etc. The use of syntax is like that of Python or the Pearl programming language.

Ruby on Rails is the most successful web application framework written in Ruby. It is a server-side framework that allows users to access default structures for a web service or a database or web pages.

If you are a ruby user then you need to be at rest as it provides dynamic reflection and alteration of objects that help with metaprogramming. Its flexible syntax minimizes syntactic noise and gives a domain for a domain-specific language.

Main Differences Between Python and Ruby

  1. Python is the most popular programming language and is taught widely in various universities whereas Ruby has a small but loyal fan following.
  2. Python and Ruby are bots object-oriented but ruby is fully object-oriented so much so that primitive data types are also considered objects.
  3. Python is influenced by languages like ABC, C++, etc. whereas Ruby is influenced by programming languages like BASIC, Smalltalk, and Python.
  4. Ruby can be used cross-platform and usually comes preinstalled whereas Python can be used on multiple operating systems but not all.
  5. Python is a high-level programming language which is not the case with Ruby as it is a general-purpose programming language.

Conclusion

Both programming languages are designed to suit the user and provide them with the best possible experience. Ruby is a general-purpose, interpreted, object-oriented programming language whereas python is a high-level, object-oriented, interpreted programming language.
Python is a scripting language and is easy to learn whereas Ruby is an open-source language that runs on all types of operating systems. Both languages share a lot of similarities as both are object-oriented and are high-level languages. Both languages can be used for web applications and are server-side scripting languages.
There are some differences as well which set them apart however, both have been used to write some popular apps. Python has been used to write applications like Instagram, Facebook and it is recognized as an official language at Google. Ruby has been used to write applications like GitHub and Spotify.

References

  1. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aJQILlLxRmAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=python+programming&ots=CC6OzJYaYD&sig=MDWX6HD5QqAR-J7SpiamlESD1Gw
  2. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jcUbTcr5XWwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=ruby+programming&ots=fLDpwhbtcy&sig=DngK269NBlgAWf1cGbCw2RkhWiI