Matz

Yukihiro Matsumoto, commonly known as Matz, is a Japanese computer scientist and software programmer best known for creating the Ruby programming language. He was born on April 14, 1965, in Osaka, Japan. In the mid-1990s, Matsumoto designed Ruby to balance power with programmer happiness, drawing inspiration from languages such as Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp. The first public release of Ruby appeared in 1995, and subsequent releases refined its syntax, garbage collection, and standard library.

Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, object-oriented language in which every value is an object. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming, and emphasizes simplicity and productivity. Ruby's design aims to be natural and intuitive, with a focus on readable code and a friendly programming experience, often described as emphasizing programmer happiness.

The language gained widespread attention through the Ruby on Rails web framework, released in 2004, which simplified the development of database-backed web applications and helped Ruby achieve rapid adoption. Since its inception, Matsumoto has continued to participate in the language’s development as a core designer and maintainer, engaging with the community and guiding its evolution. His work has influenced subsequent language design toward readability and developer-centric features, contributing to the prominence of dynamic languages in modern programming.