From: Michael Neumann <mneumann@...>
Date: 2004-07-21T04:08:32+09:00
Subject: Re: VB(ish) replacement

Larry Bates wrote:
> Others have answered most of the other questions.
> 
> 
>>11. Database support of Access and MySQL
> 
> 
> Access databases can be accessed via ODBC,
> DAO, or ADO interfaces on Windows.  MySQL has
> native interface from Python.

Ruby has this all, too ;-)

> Questions you didn't ask:
> 
> 12) Can interface to existing COM+ objects, write new
> COM+ objects and write Windows services.
> 
> Python

Not sure, but with Ruby you can access COM objects, script Excel for 
example...

> 13) Can write scripts, applications (console and GUI),
> and web services with single language.
> 
> Python

Ruby, too ;-)

Ruby has a cool SOAP implementation and WSDL.

> 14) Has extensive standard library to support email
> (SMTP, IMAP), FTP, HTTP, logging, regular expressions,
> arrays, and many more.  Third party libraries for
> imaging (Python Imaging Library), PDF generation
> (ReportLab), Graphing (ReportLab Graphics) and
> XML parsing (PyRXP by ReportLab).  Just to name a
> few.

SMTP, IMAP, FTP, HTTP, logging, regexps, arrays all standard in Ruby.
XML parser (REXML), YAML, SOAP and XMLRPC comes with Ruby by default.
...

> Python

Ruby ;-)

> 15) Easy to write C language extensions for language
> 
> Python

Very easy in Ruby, too.

> 16) Code that you can actually understand when you
> come back to read it a year later.
> 
> Python (priceless ;-)

Ruby ;-)

> You might want to take a look at the experience of
> another company:
> 
> http://python.oreilly.com/news/disney_0201.html

http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?RealWorldRuby

>>What they seem to be looking for is:
>>1. High level language, but not necessarly VB compatible.

Ruby: very high level

>>2. OOP

Ruby: pure OO (designed from the beginning on)

>>3. Reasonalble learning curve

Ruby: it's easy to get started, but there are lots of tricky details 
(you only have to learn them if you're interested)

>>4. Cross-platform

Ruby. But Windows support in Ruby is not as good as in Python (AFAIK), 
but there is a Windows Installer version available, which comes bundled 
with lots of stuff.

>>5. IDE and ability to graphically design windows.

Arachno Ruby IDE. Commercial, but still alpha or beta release. Available 
for Python, Perl and PHP, too. Lot's of features. Made in Germany ;-)

Design Windows: If Qt is an option (it costs a bit of money when used on 
Windows or commercially), there's a brand new Qt/Kde binding for Ruby 
based on Smoke.

http://developer.kde.org/language-bindings/ruby/index.html

With this, you can use all Qt and KDE widgets, and AFAIK even without 
compiling any C sources (once you've compiled the Ruby-Smoke bindings).

Alternatively, there are FXRuby (www.fxruby.org), wxRuby 
(wxruby.rubyforge.org), Tk or fltk bindings. But no usable graphical 
designers for those.

>>6. Distribute programs as .exe's, so some sort of compiler needed.

available in Ruby: exerb

http://exerb.sourceforge.jp/index.en.html

>>7. Serial communications library (RS-232, 485, USB)

RS-232 libraries are available in Ruby. don't know about USB, but should 
be easy to write a wrapper around libusb on linux. Don't know about Windows.

>>8. SNMP library

Several libraries in Ruby:

http://raa.ruby-lang.org/search.rhtml?search=snmp

Even one written in pure Ruby (brand new, only a few days old).

>>9. Good performance (not expected to be as fast as C/C++)

depends. Python is probably faster than Ruby, but not much (unless you 
use psyco etc.).

>>10. Windows are native to each O.S.

wxRuby (not as major as wxPython, my personal feeling was, that's quite 
slow). But I'd prefer FxRuby (Windows-like look on each platform).

>>11. Database support of Access and MySQL

Ruby/ODBC, two mysql libraries for Ruby. Ruby/DBI has ADO, ODBC and 
Mysql drivers.

Of course Python is better known, and there are more commercial projects 
  written in Python than in Ruby.

For more libraries, Ruby's Application Archive is your friend: 
http://raa.ruby-lang.org

Regards,

   Michael