From: Tom Copeland <tom@...>
Date: 2004-07-13T03:39:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Functional Ruby (Re: Why I don't use Ruby.)

On Mon, 2004-07-12 at 14:27, Sean Russell wrote:
> In my experience, many of my programs in Ruby start out being
> functional.  Just a line or two return results per line of a file. 
> Then they grow to be imperative, and I'm defining functions.  The
> final stage is when they metamorphose into true OO programs; I wrap up
> the functions in reusable Objects, and wrap the application up into a
> single (or a very few) instantiations and method invocations.  This is
> one of the reasons why I like Ruby so much.  Even though it is more OO
> than Java, Java is more of a pain because you have to start out in the
> OO paradigm, even when you don't need it.

Very nicely put.  I find the same thing happening - first I'll be
backticking psql to run a PostgreSQL query, then I make a function to
wrap it in "psql -c", then I make a little object to do a dry run before
actually running the query.  And this transition only takes 5 minutes or
so, and it's not painful to do since I'm not continually recompiling and
such.  Just VIM (with VIM/Ruby, of course) and a command line.  Good
times!

tom