From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2006-07-29T12:39:58+09:00
Subject: Re: For performance, write it in C - Part 2, comparing C, Ruby and Java

Chad Perrin wrote:
> It might be more accurate to say that he's just reformulated the same
> situation those of us who are Ruby fans have described differently --
> but in doing so, he doesn't realize it's a reformulation, and thinks
> he's correcting us.
>
> foo = :ruby_fan
> bar = :eddie
> baz = :chad_perrin
>
> foo.says('Ruby's easy to use.  C is harder.  Assembly is much worse.')
> bar.says('Assembly's okay.  C is easy.  You just have to be careful.')
> baz.says('I guess it depends on your perspective.')
>
> The problem is:
>   bar.says('You're all wusses.').also
>   
Well, no ... I'm simply saying that when I was doing it, I did not find 
assembly language programming more difficult than programming in a 
higher-level language. The last time I wrote assembly code for money was 
in 1990, and for fun in 1995. For those Rubyists who say, "Ruby has made 
programming fun *again*," well, it's always been fun when I got paid and 
my code got used, or when I was building something for myself. The 
language has never mattered.

Ruby is a very well-designed higher-level language -- one of the best 
I've seen. Which is why I'm learning Ruby and not Python or PHP or Lua 
or C#. If my boss came to me Monday and said, "We just bought a company 
that wrote a killer app in Lua, and we want you to maintain it," well, 
I'd learn Lua. :)