From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2005-10-20T00:21:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Advantages of Ruby

rjack@elegancetech.com wrote:
> I am new to Ruby. I have done most of my development in statically
> typed languages (Java, C++, C#, etc.).
>
> I understand that there are advantages and disadvantages to dynamic
> versus static typing. What idioms/patterns can you do in Ruby that you
> just can't do in statically typed languages?

One of the major advantages is that you get polymorphism without the need
to make types compatible (via a common interface like in Java for
example).  In Ruby you can easily do something like this:

f = lambda {|x| puts "calc...";x ** x}
if do_it_fast?
  calc = Hash.new do |h,k|
    h[k] = f[k]
  end
else
  calc = f
end

puts calc[10]
puts calc[10]

i.e. you can use a Hash and a lambda interchangably.  Basically, you gain
a lot of flexibility.

> Are there problems you
> can solve in Ruby that you can't solve or would be awkward to solve in
> statically typed languages?

I don't think this is about issues not being solvable but about needing
more or less lines of code (which directly impacts productivity and
likeliness of bugs).

Kind regards

    robert