From: gga Date: 2007-02-05T11:05:08+09:00 Subject: Re: Newbie question on Ruby module support. On 4 feb, 12:35, "Harry" wrote: > Hello, > > I'm very new to Ruby. Like its elegant syntax very much, so much so > that I instantly feel like dumping Perl. However, I'm also hearing > that the number of modules (or, packages) that come with Ruby are far, > far less compared to Perl. It is probably not true, unless you are a true Perl expert that knows each module inside out and uses a lot of obscure features. For most tasks, you should be able to find equivalent or better modules than you find in Perl (this, speaking as Perl guy with 5 years experience). My guess is that the best way for you to find out about modules is to make a list of what you need and ask about what the equivalent ruby library is. If you find something big missing, Ruby may not be for you (yet). > > Since I'm not sure whether (or, how much of) this is true, > My guess is that it is FUD. You can also try checking www.rubyforge.org and the older http://raa.ruby-lang.org/ for what you might need. Between both, they cover pretty much all libraries available to Ruby. Some libs come with a low version number (but sometimes that's not an indication of how reliable or finished they are). Most libs are pretty mature, and, in the case of rubyforge, are available with a very similar (and better) system to CPAN. >I'm wondering whether switching to Ruby from Perl for my scripting, sys > admin, and general programming tasks would be a wise decision. Could > someone from the community please advise? Thanks! Probably yes, unless you are maintaining a huge Perl code-base that you would be forced to port. And even then, you may still consider it if you think Ruby's elegance will save you time and money over the years.