From: Phil <cmdjackryan@...>
Date: 2007-09-22T08:15:15+09:00
Subject: Re: I am new to Ruby and I could use some expert advice as t



> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-bounce@example.com [mailto:list-bounce@example.com] On
> Behalf Of 7stud --
> Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 1:02 AM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: Re: I am new to Ruby and I could use some expert advice as t
> 
> 
> Agreed.  However, I  learn a new languages because I think it will help
> me write better programs.  Ruby gets a lot of hype as part of ROR, but
> everything I read leads me to believe that Ruby is just too slow to be
> practical.

Tell that the guys at Twitter or 37signals. ;)

For a given problem-domain (i.e. nothing number-crunching), Ruby is Fast Enough. If you want speed, Ruby is not for you (although that differs on the interpreter you use. JRuby is faster in some situation than Matz's implementation, and YARV (Ruby 1.9) seems to have speed improvements, too).

Considering how fast today's computers are, and how much memory is available on average, neither Ruby's (lack of) speed, nor it's memory requirements are a big issue. And where it *is* an issue, it is a matter of picking the right tools (C for device drivers and embedded jobs, for example, .NET for the Windows world).

Ruby has it's interesting points, especially in duck-typing and reflection/meta-programming. Not to mention, that it has a friendly and helpful community, and a rather short learning curve (the way to mastery, though, is long, much as it is with Go :P).

Of course, Ruby provides at least some productivity gains, and Programmer time is costlier than CPU time.



In short: Look at what you need, and be pragmatic: If Ruby doesn't fit your problem domain, don't use it.

--
Phillip Gawlowski