From: Dick Davies <rasputnik@...>
Date: 2004-09-16T01:03:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Ex-Perl coders: Howz it feel to convert to Ruby?

* Chris <ceo@nospan.on.net> [0954 15:54]:
> I didn't even think about asking this question until now, based on a 
> paragraph I wrote in another thread, so I thought I would ask...
 
> .....I've finally decided that the only way is to ween 
> myself off of Perl and just start using Ruby all the way.

Good on you boy, although your family will starve :)
I am still 'Writing Perl for Food', though I hope to start sneaking Ruby under
the radar here now that I've settled in and earned some credit.
 
> ....  I'm fairly fast, tight, 
> and concise at hitting targets using Perl and I don't want to loose that 
> productivity using Ruby.  Still, it appears a "hit" has to be taken if I 
> really want to learn it as well as I know Perl.
> 
> So the question for any hardcore Perl coders out there that have 
> converted to Perl (or are fluent in both) is: Is it really worth the 
> time?  Are the paybacks there?  And do you feel you've exceeded your 
> capabilities in Perl using Ruby?

Perl has a lot of annoying rough edges now I'm used to Ruby - 
lack of iterators and the func(thingy) rather than obj.method syntax.

But it's also got a few absolutely horrible bits, number one being the whole
OOP model. Despite this a lot of third party libs use the model because it 
makes namespace management almost feasible.

It sticks in my eye whenever I try to read another library, sometimes
when I just try to use them, and means things like unit testing are impractical.

So with Perl I just throw something together until it works, test it by hand as 
best I can, and hope I can finish it in one sitting, because I won't be able to
follom it when I come back to it :)

> OO.  I think the gap between Ruby and most everything else is that big 
> -- as well as the payoffs...?

The nice thing about ruby is that it lets you write code without thinking too
much about the language, so your brain has more room for your app logic.
I have almost finished my del.icio.us api library after
about two days of ten minute coding sessions while I was waiting for kernels to compile.

Find a problem to solve and get to it, and post here when you get stuck or think
'there must be a prettier way of saying this' (because in my experience there is).

but to paraphrase the Envoy Corps: '*you* write the code, not the language'.
Use what you find easiest. But I think if you already dig it, then Ruby will
pay off for you.

-- 
God made the world in six days, and was arrested on the seventh.
Rasputin :: Jack of All Trades - Master of Nuns