From: William James <w_a_x_man@...>
Date: 2007-10-01T02:10:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Can you please help to make decision?

On Sep 30, 8:47 am, 7stud -- <dol...@excite.com> wrote:
[...]
> Ruby also relies heavily on regex's, and regex's are never going to be
> easy to read for anyone.  regex's are not beginner friendly, and that
> might be a big barrier for a beginner trying to learn ruby.  There are
> lots of people who just can't learn regex's.

Those are probably the same people who can't figure out
what a code block is.  Even little old Awk relies heavily on
regular expressions, which should be learned by anyone who
wants to rise above COBOL and BASIC and C.

[...]
> 5)
> - and this is my favorite: "Code Blocks", learning to use code blocks
> is probably the single greatest benefit from learning Ruby, Python
> just will not give this to you.
>
> I don't know what "code blocks" are and the subject isn't in the
> appendix of ruby's bible: pickaxe2, so I can't comment on that.

Zounds!

And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room,
Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing;
But, like a mole in earth, busy and blind,
Works all her folly up, and casts it outward
To the world's open view.
  ---Dryden

[...]
> 7) There are some really nice little touches that python implements,
> which make programming less aggravating.  I'll highlight one.
>
> Both ruby and python have string formatting, which requires more typing
> as well as typing harder to reach characters on the keyboard in order to
> output some information to the screen.  But let's say you just want to
> quickly display something to the screen with minimal typing.  In ruby,
> you can use the method: puts.   For instance,
>
> val1 = 10
> val2 = 20
>
> puts val1, val2
>
> puts adds a newline after each value, so the output is:
>
> 10
> 20
>
> But, what if you want to print two things on the same line.  Ruby also
> has a print method:
>
> print val1, val2
>
> but the output will be: 1020.  To get some separation, you have to do
> this:
>
> print val1, " ", val2
>
> and then the output will be: 10 20.  Having to include the quoted space
> in there is almost not worth the effort--you might be swayed to use the
> more laborious string formatting instead.  In addition, print does not
> add a newline at the end, so to keep any subsequent output from
> displaying on the same line, you need to write:
>
> print val1, " ", val2, "\n"
>
> That's just too much of a hassle.  Using puts with string formatting is
> probably no harder to type:
>
> puts "#{val1} #{val2}"
>
> So much for being able to type something quickly that displays a few
> values to the screen.
>
> In python, the print command is like the puts method in ruby.  However,
> it works a little bit differently.  The statement:
>
> print val1, val2
>
> works differently in two ways:
>
> 1) print adds a newline after all the output--not after each variable
> 2) print automatically adds a space between each variable
>
> So this code:
>
> val1 = 10
> val2 = 20
>
> print val1, val2
>
> produces the output: 10 20, and since print automatically adds a newline
> after all the output, the next print statement won't display output on
> the same line.  As a result, python's print statement is incredibly
> handy and easy to use.  I think it shows how much thought is put into
> the details of the language.

Apparently, Ruby gives the programmer more power here.
Just as Awk has OFS (output-field-separator) and ORS
(output-record-separator), Ruby has $, and $\.

E:\Ruby>irb --prompt xmp
print 88,99
8899    ==>nil
$, = ' '
    ==>" "
print 88,99
88 99    ==>nil
$\ = "\n"
    ==>"\n"
print 88,99
88 99
    ==>nil
$, = '--'
    ==>"--"
print 88,99
88--99
    ==>nil
$\ = "<<\n"
    ==>"<<\n"
print 88,99
88--99<<
    ==>nil