From: Preston Crawford <me@...>
Date: 2005-01-22T08:25:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Reasons to consider learning Ruby?

On 2005-01-21, Joao Pedrosa <joaopedrosa@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> So my question to you guys is, why Ruby?
>> 
>> Also, do any of you have a feeling as to the future of Ruby? I know these
>> things can change on a dime, but my main interest in this regard is that I
>> know many shops are considering non-web-based Open Source solutions to
>> replacing existing Visual C++ and VB applications. Acting as an oracle
>> (i.e. taking a guess :-) ) what kind of future do you think Ruby has in
>> this regard?
>
> As some people might say, this has been discussed before so
> comp.lang.ruby can be searched on google. :-)

Of course. I've Googled this topic thoroughly. And (as mentioned in my 
other response) the conclusions reached are generally the same. So the 
tie-breaker from me, aside from how enjoyable a language is to use, is 
what the future of the language holds. Thus my last paragraph. I'm 
interested in learning a langauge where there's at least some potential 
that down the road I might be able to use this do the same kind of work 
that is done on the Microsoft side of the world with VB. i.e. Quick RAD 
using a good quality language with hooks into a decent GUI toolkit. This 
is the part I don't know as much about Ruby or Python. Other than I'm 
aware that Python has pyQT, etc. But I have leanings towards Ruby, just in 
terms of syntax and the way the language is constructed. That's why I 
asked here.

> But I believe in Ruby and the people that make Ruby what it is. If you
> consider that people have different abilities and motivations, then
> you might imagine that the people that make Python are different than
> the people that make Ruby.
>
> That said, i think that the code on the core and the libs of Ruby are
> very high level and very open for use. Couple that with the nice mix
> of features that are unique of Ruby, then you have a killer base for
> new software.

That's what I gather. I've done Java for years. But sometimes you just 
want to get things done. Thus my interest.

> One inspired programmer created the base of the Rails framework. So it
> may take one inspired programmer for every library that we may ever
> need. If you don't find your killer library, build it with Ruby,
> enjoying what's available already. Join forces with the community if
> you ever need.
>
> In the end, it's about getting inspired. :-)

Thank you! That helps.

Preston