IBM and PowerRuby Inc. announced the release of the industry's first commercially supported port of the Ruby language and Rails web framework to IBM i. PowerRuby will be offered as a free community download to be installed on customer machines and is available from www.powerruby.com.

PowerRuby is specifically designed to bring the reality and community of Ruby on Rails to the IBM community, specifically for Power Systems servers running IBM i. As a dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity, Ruby is popular with young developers who appreciate that the language is natural to read and easy to write. "To create an elegant connection between IBM i and Ruby/Rails presented a real, but enjoyable, challenge," says Andrea Ribuoli, Product Architect, PowerRuby, Inc., "What we have succeeded in building will join largescale business development with a vibrant young developer community."

"There's something special going on with Ruby and Rails," says Aaron Bartell, CoFounder, PowerRuby Inc. "Never before have I seen such coordinated community efforts to efficiently produce reusable code (aka gems) in such open and social fashions. Coding is fun again. We want to introduce that reality to the IBM i platform."

Included with the initial release is a native Rubybased database driver that communicates directly with DB2 on IBM i without need of additional proxies such as MySQL. PowerRuby also offers a specially written interface that makes use of XMLSERVICE, the gateway for any and all nonnative languages to easily access IBM i resources, including RPG programs.

A team of developers from the IBM i and other communities came together to develop PowerRuby and IBM has thrown its support behind the project by providing technical support and visibility.

"The IBM i team has been a strong supporter of open source solutions as a way to leverage new industry applications and new avenues into existing applications," says Alison Butterill, World Wide IBM i Product Offering Manager, IBM. "We are excited that the PowerRuby team is providing a supported version of the Ruby ecosystem for IBM i."

"From the beginning, the reason for PowerRuby was simple and compelling? this will change everything we know about bigscale Web application development," says Anthony Avison, CoFounder, PowerRuby Inc. "It is a privilege to work with truly excellent people—forging a magical marriage of platform and language."

Visit the PowerRuby website at www.powerruby.com or follow PowerRuby on Twitter at @RubyOnPower for more information.