[ruby-talk:13755] Re: methods and types

"Jish Karoshi" <[e-mail]> writes:

> I want my team to start using ruby instead of perl for all the
> various odds and ends tasks that perl gets used for now.  I have
> seen enough perl code to last me a lifetime.  Good code in perl
> is fine, but there's something about bad code in perl thats worse
> than bad code in other languages, something very HP-Lovecraft-
> mad-servants-of-the-elder-gods-chattering-in-the-extradimensional-
> insect-language kind of bad that makes my head hurt when I have
> to read it.  Which is why I started looking at ruby in the first
> place.

And that sounds like an eminently sensible plan :)

> I am just very curious to know what tools and what methods people
> use to successfully implement medium sized projects in ruby.  More
> specifically, if we changed from java to ruby for a 20-30 man year
> project, what would we need to change in our design process and
> our other tools in order to end up on schedule with a robust system?

I don't think it would be prudent to use Ruby for a 20--30 man-year
project until I'd had a chance to let the team try it on a smaller
scale. I'm as big a Ruby advocate as they get, but I'd still say that
Ruby is far behind (say) Java in terms of ancillary support: there
are thousands of books on Java, and (so far :) one on Ruby. There are
Java training courses, and Java consultants, and ...

However, I also think that with a team that knows Ruby, and that is
comfortable with it, you'd see significant benefits using Ruby over
Java in many problem domains.

> Do tools even exist that can cope with ruby?  We use rational for
> UML etc, and mercury for testing currently.  This is why I asked
> about the argument types question in the first place, because it
> seems like it would force a change in the way you do things when you
> design and iterate, and I want to know what those changes are so I
> can make an informed choice.

Perhaps a place to start would be with the XP folks, and the C3
project. They delivered a project of roughly that size in Smalltalk,
and Smalltalk's a near relative of Ruby. Maybe you could ask on the XP
mailing list about the differences that static typing would make to a
project.



Regards


Dave