Ruby for iOS Developers — Part 1

As an iOS developer, sooner or later, you will stumble upon this odd programming language called Ruby. Either because you wanted to integrate some libraries into your app using cocoapods or because you were trying to upload your app to the AppStore using fastlane. Whatever the reason be, it’s wise to have some basic understanding of what Ruby is and how to make the most of it.

As you have probably already guessed, Ruby is a programming language. It is an open-source language but it’s not yet “another” programming language; as the creator Yukihiro Matsumoto once identified, it is a language created for humans and not for machines.

I designed Ruby for humans, not for machines

The official website describes Ruby as

A dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. It has an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write.

But before we start dissecting what this all means let’s have a quick look at the famous Hello World example from ruby-lang.org:

As can be seen, there are indeed no single main method, no semicolons, no curly brackets. It’s just plain old English.