From: darren <rubylang@...>
Date: 2004-12-29T12:29:14+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Philosophy

On Tuesday 28 December 2004 3:11 am, gabriele renzi wrote:
> Darren Crotchett ha scritto:

[ . . . snip . . . ]

> First, I think Smalltalk is more predictable and more consistent than
> ruby, but, somewhat, I don't want that kind of consistency (i.e.
> #ifTrue: vs algol-like if).

I'm not familiar with algol other than the fact that it is an early language 
that has had a heavy influence on later languages.  But, that's all I know.  
I like #ifTrue.  I'm not sure if you were saying that you liked it or you 
didn't.  But, it makes sense to me.

> The other point is the IDE integration/image based development. I can't
> feel good with it, and actually, I think I really felt comfortable just
> with GNU/Smalltalk because of the lack of a GUI environment(when I last
> tried.. I think they have one now). Notice this  is just me, I
> understand. We seem to get a lot of Smalltalkish stuff in ruby in this
> days (i.e. the breakpoint library somewhat feels like debug-and-continue)

I'm not a big GUI person.  My preferred OS is Linux and my favorite editor is 
vim.  I used the VisualWorks IDE.  But, I found it uncomfortable to use for 
several reasons (like wheel mouse not working, the toolkit didn't behave like 
my Gnome or KDE apps (must have been Tk or something)).  If I were interested 
in a GUI, it wouldn't be VisualWorks, today.  When I finished this semester, 
the first thing I did was to delete VisualWorks.  Cincom seems like a great, 
customer-oriented, company.  But, I can't work in that IDE.

> > Also, is the Ruby community experiencing a lot of growth or what?
>
> I really think so, and I thing when the "Facets of Ruby" book series
> from the PragProgs will come out it will grow further :D

I don't really know why popularity is important.  True.  It means more bugs 
found.  But, I also think it suggests that if a programming language can 
satisfy the masses, it might be worth investing some time in.  But, the lack 
of popularity doesn't mean the opposite.  For example, during my educational 
experience, the language that most appealed to me is Smalltalk.  It's 
probably also the least popular.  I think people want a better programming 
environment, but when it's available, they are just put off because it's too 
different.  It's a catch 22.

Darren