[ruby-talk:19385] Re: Perl/Python/Ruby common backend (Parrot, can Ruby play too?)

In article <Bw4c7.1810$[e-mail]>,
A Bull in the China Shop of Life  <[e-mail]> wrote:
>At 02:37 PM 8/8/01 +0900, Mathieu Bouchard spewed forth:

>All this debate about Python vs Ruby is of questionable value IMO, they're 
>two different languages with largely competitive feature sets (What one 
>lacks the other makes up for in different areas)  and varying levels of 
>maturity in any given area.

There was no intent for this thread to devolve into a 'Python vs. Ruby' 
thread.  The whole idea here is to open a dialog about the needs of each 
language as it relates to the Perl6 backend (Now apparently being called 
Parrot).  So far I think we're doing pretty well ;-)

>
>Tool to task - I use Python in cases where Ruby isn't up to snuff yet (e.g. 
>MacOS classic AE/Apple-Scripting, more extensive win32/OLE/COM support, 
>etc) but mostly for scripting tasks, whereas I see Ruby as being a more 
>elegant general programming language suited to solving complex problems 
>which happens to also be quite good at UNIX (and somewhat more limited 
>win32) scripting.

Python has it's place, Ruby has it's place, Perl has it's place.  In many 
cases it's a matter of personal preference.

>
>I also use Python at work where introducing a new language simply isn't 
>kosher, and that's Okay because Python fills the bill nicely there.
>

Well, here's another way to look at it:  It is indeed hard to convince 
management to let you use a different language.  In terms of the number of 
developers (and hence the number of sites using a particular language) 
Perl is the leader by far (in the set [Perl,Python,Ruby]).  Efforts in the 
direction of having a common backend for Perl6,Python and Ruby can only 
help Python's and Ruby's acceptance (Boss: "You're using Perl, right?", 
Programmer1: "Well, of course we're using Perl."... later,Programmer1 to 
Programmer2: "You prefer Ruby, I prefer Python, the boss likes Perl - it's 
nice that we can use the language of our choice and it all works together";-)

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" - John Lennon

Phil