I don't know, if the statement is true, since I did not work with Ruby really till now.
But I definitively would support this statement:
> Programming languages cannot be considered separately from their ecosystems
I think, one of the main reasons for the success of the C system was not the language itself, but the standard C library. Standard Pascal did not have such a thing (Borland Pascal had and was more successful as any other Pascal), Modula 2 -- a superior language at its time, did not have it (the library that was standard for Modula 2, was just to clunky for wide usage) and also other languages did not have it.
C, when it started, had not only the library, but also a -- for that time -- superior development environment: Unix.
From this, I would strongly agree, that the ecosystem is decisive -- and the bar has risen since the times of C. Today, you need top compilers or interpreters, top of the notch libraries -- best to have a framework (like Rails) for a good use-case to use the language and tools around that support your programming.
With all those good languages around today, any new language must have an appeal and the ecosystem and if possible the community, to be successful.
But I definitively would support this statement:
> Programming languages cannot be considered separately from their ecosystems
I think, one of the main reasons for the success of the C system was not the language itself, but the standard C library. Standard Pascal did not have such a thing (Borland Pascal had and was more successful as any other Pascal), Modula 2 -- a superior language at its time, did not have it (the library that was standard for Modula 2, was just to clunky for wide usage) and also other languages did not have it.
C, when it started, had not only the library, but also a -- for that time -- superior development environment: Unix.
From this, I would strongly agree, that the ecosystem is decisive -- and the bar has risen since the times of C. Today, you need top compilers or interpreters, top of the notch libraries -- best to have a framework (like Rails) for a good use-case to use the language and tools around that support your programming.
With all those good languages around today, any new language must have an appeal and the ecosystem and if possible the community, to be successful.