From: Milan Maksimovic <maksa@...>
Date: 2001-11-15T08:38:37+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:25227] RE:  Linux Magazine article

From: dave@thomases.com [mailto:dave@thomases.com]
On Behalf Of Dave Thomas 
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 12:07 AM

>> So, a quick poll request: what features of Ruby do you 
>> think would most impress or excite someone who hasn't 
>> used the language yet? 

 Blocks & yields. 
 From what I've seen, when comparing to other OO 
glue/scripting languages - they really make a difference. 
I understand that you will avoid comparing languages, 
but there's nothing wrong with stating that this *is*
Ruby specific. 

 I'd also recommend a small Regexp sample for the 
regex uninitiated (if there are Linux magazine reading
folks of that kind), like something that swaps two names 
in a sentence: 

sentence = "Peter was spending time with Mary, but 
           Lisa wanted to spend time with Peter and Mary."

sentence.gsub!( /(Lisa|Mary)/ ) do | name |
  if name === "Mary"
    "Lisa"
  elsif name === "Lisa"
    "Mary"
  end
end

puts sentence

Maybe wrap it in a nice swapWords( one, other ) function.

>> What small applications would whet people's appetites?

 Pick a task that looks a bit daunting by itself and provide 
a nice and easy Ruby solution. (Gee, who'd think of that ;)

 Maybe something distributed using drb - say, a basic multi-user 
chat application or something that let's you pass files around 
from one computer to another without file system or ftp/web 
access. After all, P2P is the buzz these days. If it wasn't a 
Linux magazine I'd recommend some nice FOX GUI pictures on the 
side (no code, as it looks a bit scary near pure Ruby). 


Regards,
Maksa