From: Kirk Haines <khaines@...>
Date: 2006-04-27T06:41:11+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby for command line applications

On Wednesday 26 April 2006 3:31 pm, Jake McArthur wrote:

> Ruby: Good for those who like to make elegant solutions to their
> problems. Tends to make readable programs that can be easily modified
> later. More powerful than Perl (IMHO), but not as concise. Definitely
> is the most enjoyable language to work with on a regular basis as it
> does not hinder you with weird syntax or restrictions, for the most
> part.

I would argue that point.  Back in 2002, when I was first learning Ruby, I was 
coming to it from many years of using Perl for everything.  To my joy I found 
that, in general, my newbie-Ruby code was shorter and more readable than 
equivalent Perl of a type that I would actually use in production.

I'm not talking the ultra-compressed, obfusicated, line-noise Perl, but the 
kind of thing one writes when one wants to have a chance of easily 
understanding it again 6 months later.

For a while I delighted in taking my Perl production code and rewriting parts 
of it in Ruby, just to bask in it's readability and it's terseness.  It was a 
joy.

So, speaking as someone who uses Ruby for command line tools and system 
automation scripts, I strongly support the use of Ruby for those sorts of 
things, in lieu of Perl.


Kirk Haines