From: Philip Hallstrom <ruby@...>
Date: 2006-06-12T03:49:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby for Highschoolers?

>> That's a matter of taste; people that never saw code didn't yet
>> develop a taste for it.
> That said, I saw people getting incredibly confused by the idea of matching 
> the curly braces up. Ruby looks a lot more natural, so I think it would be 
> easier for people to relate something like this:
>
> def do_something(n)
>  if n < 10
>    true
>  else
>    false
>  end
> end
>
> As opposed to:
>
> (define (do_something n)
> (cond
>  [(< n 10) true]
>  [else false]
> )
> )

I wouldn't be too worried about the ()'s, I'd be more worried that Ruby 
has a lot of various syntax...

method arg1, arg2, arg3
method(arg1, arg2, arg3)

var = if true then '1' else '0'
 	# or the case equivalent...

etc...

I personally love it, but when you are a complete beginner this sort of 
thing just makes your head hurt and I haven't even hit the ones that make 
my head hurt...

Might be just be, but when I've tried to teach people languages they all 
seem to want a very rigid syntax.... for example, they liked for(;;) but 
didn't want to deal with do/while because they had their "one true looping 
construct".

Not saying scheme is any better in this regard though, but something to 
think about...

anyway, more to chew on.