[pansa2]

If you're looking for a high-level scripting language for small projects that you keep to yourself, Ruby is the obvious alternative to Python. Lua not so much - it's fine when embedded but doesn't have the ecosystem for standalone use.

However, if you want to make programs for others to download and use, I'd recommend a language that can be compiled into easily-distributable binaries. As long as the overhead of a garbage collector is acceptable, Go is the clear favourite here.

[rlawson]

I do wish Lua saw more widespread use as a general scripting language. I find it's simplicity refreshing compared to Python

[viraptor]

There's also Crystal for the compiled usecase.

[rochak]

An important note: If you plan on sticking to an editor that has LSP integration like Vim/VSCode and so, stay away from Ruby as Ruby's language server solargraph is just not good. Personally, this is my main reason for staying away from languages like Ruby, Kotlin etc.

[Nickydigit]

I will keep it in mind, though a quick search returned a project that resemble LSP integration for Ruby : https://github.com/Shopify/ruby-lsp.

Also RubyMine (IDE from Jetbrains) seems to have its own LSP integrated.

[rochak]

There are some limitations with ruby-lsp. I'd recommend checking some sources to identify if any would be a dealbreaker.