That Ruby Is So Hot Right Now...

I was just reading the latest stats from the TIOBE Programming Community Index. What is this index? They say themselves that it “gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages.” Yes, I know what Mark Twain had to say about stats, but I still love reading them! Anyhow, the latest and greatest December 2006 stats are fascinating as usual.
Ruby is still surging in popularity, in fact it has had the biggest rise in popularity over the last year of any language in the top 20. I know that Python/Django enthusiasts have been dissing Ruby heavily of late, but I refuse to get drawn in to any such nonsense. Any language that people actually use has good things going for it at something, or no one would use it at all. Especially any language that is reasonably popular.
Besides, dead programmers are eager to learn new languages. I myself am fluent in 7 of the top 20 languages, and able to fake my way thru a few others. And I’m sure that there are others out there who know more of the languages in this list than I do.
But my love affair with Ruby continues, and it sure looks like I am not the only one!