From: Navindra Umanee <navindra@...>
Date: 2005-02-15T03:07:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Printing why's (poignant) guide to ruby

Marcus Sharp <brothermarcus@gmail.com> wrote:
> As a noob to Ruby who was convinced to try it after reading why's
> wonderful work, i will say that i find Ruby "harder" than Python.  To
> call Python a "joke of a language" is pretty harsh by the way.   It is
>
> I did go and find a used copy of Learn Ruby in 21 Days and it does
> seem to be a bit easier to get through so far, but the Ruby syntax is
> a bit more work for me whereas in Python I feel like I'm writing
> pseudo code that actually works.  But that's just me, your average
> newbie (or maybe to you I'm an  idiot) , and it of course in no way

Thanks Marcus, I have to admit some of the comments are making me lose
my cool here.  The profanity, and accusations of trolling (with
simultaneous attacks on Python) as well as my unfortunate lack of
sleep are all adding up.

Of course there are some very good points in this thread too.  The
matter of teaching programming to a complete newbie is no trivial
matter either way.

I honestly think things like blocks are not a trivial matter.

Why:

5.times { print "hello " }

instead of:

5 times print hello

There is so much going on in '5.times { print "hello" }'.  The more
experienced may not give a second thought, but to the enquiring newbie
it's a different matter.

You've expressed what I've been trying to say all along so I think
I'll leave it at that.

Later,
Navin.