From: ptkwt@... (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2005-12-21T11:07:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Bruce Eckel and Ruby

In article <9e7db9110512201553t1355cb4ah@mail.gmail.com>,
Austin Ziegler  <halostatue@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 20/12/05, Bob Hutchison <hutch@recursive.ca> wrote:
>> Lose the hostility and read his article again. He is asking a fair
>> question. Why *would* a programmer already into Python switch to
>> Ruby? My question is does it matter if we can or cannot get a Python
>> programmer to switch?
>
>Bob:
>
>Mr Eckel is not merely asking the question. He is asking the question
>in perhaps as hostile a way as he can without saying that Rubyists are
>poopyheads.
>
>Frankly, I don't *want* Mr Eckel to become a Ruby programmer (and say
>so on the blog entry I linked to earlier); he's likely to find all
>sorts of "flaws" that are in fact features that I *love* about Ruby.
>Similarly, a lot of the "features" he finds in Python I consider
>flaws. He won't be happy in Ruby, so he shouldn't use it.

Oh, now that's going a bit over the top don't you think?  I would think that 
we should actually encourage Mr. Eckel to try out Ruby.  We should welcome him 
to instead of hanging out a sign that says "No Eckel's allowed!".  Afterall, 
we're the friendly language newsgroup.  If Mr. Eckel comes here with questions 
I would hope that we would welcome him and answer them courteously (and no 
"see I told you so" type responses either).

Better to win friends than to make enemies.

Phil