After I played with Ruby about a few hours, I started loving it. Ruby is a fun toy. Like the differences between spoken languages, Ruby differs from most other programming languages not only by syntax, but by culture, grammar, and customs. And some programmers consider Ruby is English for computers. Ruby brings a new way of thinking about programming and software development. I would like to show you very basic examples, let’s go to see snippet code comparing between C# and Ruby.

//Swap value between two variables
int a = 5, b = 10;
int temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;

//Output message 3 times
for(int i = 0; i <= 3; i++)
 Console.WriteLine("Hello");

//Output message if condition is true string
str = string.Empty;
if(str == string.Empty)
 Console.WriteLine("str is empty");

#Swap value between two variables
a, b = 5, 10
a, b = b, a

#Output message 3 times
3.times { puts "Hello" }

#Output message if condition is true
str = ''
puts "str is empty" if str.empty?

Code comparisons above are not to show which language is bad and another is good, but I just want to show how I feel about new language. Ruby code is short and readable like in English. There are lots of more powerful features in Ruby that I haven’t mentioned here.

If you haven’t touched something new recently, why don’t you give Ruby a try?

Some plans that I will focus on new year:

• Touch in new features of C# 4.0
• Get deeper in ASP.NET MVC and MonoRail
• All codes should be done by test codes first
• Get more understanding on ORM, especially NHibernate
• RESTful in .NET
• Switch to use MVP for developing presentation layer of Windows App.
• Looking for a good CMS framework in .NET for building websites
• Keep growing IT communities

New year is coming, I wish all of you will bring good stuff in new year and leave bad stuff in the old year.

Mike Swanson has prepared for us a simple list of all keynotes and sessions by code and title.

What should we learn from all of those technologies?