The Ruby programming language has gained in popularity due to its easy to use syntax. One of many projects involving the language – the creation of a Japanese programmer – was to port it to Java. The three developers working on Ruby-on-Java – officially known as JRuby – were hired by Sun Microsystems in 2006, but defected to development house Engine Yard due to the uncertainty surrounding Sun last year.
Now that’s all behind them and they are ready to ship new version of JRuby with many new features. Gamelan takes a look at what’s new.
The JRuby language is getting commercial support for developers this week, thanks to Ruby specialist Engine Yard.
The JRuby language enables developers to leverage the features of the Ruby programming language on Java infrastructure. With the new commercial support for JRuby, Engine Yard is aiming to help expand the addressable footprint for the open source development language.
Engine Yard is no stranger to JRuby, and has employed the project’s founders since they left Sun in 2009.
The support comes at a key time for the JRuby community, as a new version is in the works that will significantly expand features available to the developers, which the project’s leaders hope will broaden the uptake of the language.
“It’s funny how many people use JRuby and don’t actually tell us,” JRuby Project Lead Thomas Enebo told InternetNews.com. “The magnitude of how many people are using JRuby is really difficult to gauge since JRuby for the most part just works.
