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NFJS2025

Become Super Powerful with JRuby

The explosion of popularity for dynamic languages on the JVM has changed the way we look at development. No longer is the Java platform tied to a single language, and no longer do you only have a single tool in your toolbox. Dynamic languages like Groovy, Python, Ruby, and others enable entirely new ways of solving our software problems. This session will explore one of those languages, Ruby, and show how it will make even complicated development tasks manageable and even fun.

JRuby is finally coming of age, presenting a viable new Ruby platform for both old and new Ruby developers. we'll first cover some basics about JRuby:

  • History, including past design
  • Current and future design plans
  • Performance and compatibility metrics
  • Where we go from here

JRuby also enables new ways of looking at programming on the Java platform. We'll look at some of the most popular:

  • Calling Java APIs from Ruby code and implementing Java interfaces in Ruby
  • Creating domain-specific languages to ease API use
  • Metaprogramming in Ruby: fun and easy
  • Interactive Java with the IRB console

Charles Nutter

About Charles Nutter

Charles Nutter has been a Java developer since 1996, recently working as the senior Java architect at Ventera Corp and in September moved to Sun to work full-time on JRuby! He led the open-source LiteStep project in the late 90s and came to Ruby in the fall of 2004. Since then he has been a member of the JRuby team, helping to make it a true alternative Ruby platform. Charles presented JRuby at RubyConf 2005 and co-presented at JavaOne 2006 with Thomas Enebo. He hopes to co-write a JRuby book this fall with Thomas to follow up a planned JRuby 1.0 release.

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