Ruby Plays Well With Others

Developing applications entirely in Ruby isn't always practical. It may be desirable to utilize existing code written in other languages. Also, implementing some functionality in Ruby may not yield sufficient performance. When these situations arise, Ruby can invoke code written in Java or C.

The easiest way to invoke Java code from Ruby is to use JRuby (http://jruby.codehaus.org/). JRuby is maturing rapidly now that Sun is financing much of its development.

C code can be invoked from Ruby by using wrapper code that is generated using SWIG (http://www.swig.org/) or written manually.

This talk will provide and overview of JRuby. It will also cover the details of writing C wrapper code manually, which provides the greatest flexibility and performance.

About Mark Volkmann

Mark Volkmann is a partner at Object Computing, Inc. (OCI) in St. Louis where he has provided software consulting and training since 1996. As a consultant, Mark has assisted many companies with Java, XML, Web, JavaScript, jQuery, Node.js, and AngularJS application development.

Mark has created and taught many courses on topics including: Java, Swing, XML, Ruby, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Node.js, and AngularJS.

Mark is a frequent presenter at St. Louis area user groups. He has written for XML Journal and the No Fluff Just Stuff (NFJS) magazine. He has presented at the XML DevCon, NFJS and Strange Loop conferences.

Mark frequently writes articles on various software development topics. These can be found at http://ociweb.com/sett.

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