From: Ryan Leavengood <leavengood@...>
Date: 2006-05-12T12:59:24+09:00
Subject: Re: conversion issues

Hi Corey,

Ruby wasn't necessarily written to make programming easier and more
enjoyable. It many ways it depends on who is using it. For those of us
coming from programming in languages like Java (look at the example
from Logan, ouch) it is quite refreshing. I'm not sure what your
history in programming is, but if you are new to programming or have
programmed in something much different than Ruby, I'm sure it can be
confusing at first.

Also keep in mind that programming can get very frustrating at times.
I'm sure just about every programmer reading this can remember a time
when they were pounding their keyboards and about to throw their
monitor out the window because of some stupid problem. But when that
problem is solved, or a complicated algorithm works perfectly, it is a
really great feeling. Plus it is nice to have such power of the
computer to make it do anything you want, instead of being a slave to
it and other people's programs.

The truth is, Ruby may not be right for you. That is fine. There is no
good reason for you to program in something that doesn't fit you
(well, unless you get paid a lot to do it ;)

But seriously, if you feel that Ruby doesn't work for you, check out
Python (http://www.python.org/) or maybe Perl (http://www.perl.org/)
or even Java (http://java.sun.com/). There are a lot of programming
languages out there, and it never hurts to give some of them a try.

But for most of us here, Ruby just fits.

Regards,
Ryan

On 5/11/06, corey konrad <0011@hush.com> wrote:
> The goal of ruby is to make programming easier and more enjoyable right?
> So isnt it important that a language with that as its goal can express
> simple programs in a simple and intuitive way? I am a begining
> programmer and i find ruby counter intuitive so far and that worries me
> and makes me wonder if i am wasting my time with. I want to learn how to
> write software. Thats the bigger picture i am in right now. Its not
> personal,  I am just trying to get my feet wet here and make sense of
> all this stuff.