From: Dave Thomas Date: 2001-04-17T23:06:14+09:00 Subject: [ruby-talk:13755] Re: methods and types "Jish Karoshi" 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