From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2007-10-05T12:29:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Recent Criticism about Ruby (Scalability, etc.)

Jay Levitt wrote:
> On Fri, 5 Oct 2007 11:29:48 +0900, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> 
>> I haven't ... but I don't think fun is language-specific. I can't think 
>> of a single programming language I hated using, but then, I never used 
>> RPG. :) That one I think would have sucked.
> 
> Having just jumped back to PL/I for a few weeks.. that one's no fun at ALL.
> 
> I mean, it's good for what it does; it's a lot like "C with the pain taken
> out and some sugar".  But I don't say "Whee, I'm programming in PL/I!"  And
> I don't stop to marvel at how elegant some code turned out thanks to some
> PL/I construct.  Doesn't happen.
> 
> I was recently asked what languages were my favorite before Ruby.  They had
> to repeat the question.  I never had the *concept* of a favorite language
> before Ruby.

1. I sometimes refer to Ruby as a happy marriage of Java and Perl. PL/I, 
on the other hand, was a shotgun wedding of FORTRAN and COBOL. :)

2. I have the concept of a "second-favorite language". My favorite 
language is the one I get paid to write, and my second-favorite is the 
one I'm learning at any given time.

So I think my second-favorite language of all time -- one that I enjoyed 
more than any other but never got paid to write -- is a dead tie between 
Lisp 1.5 and Forth. It seems more likely I'll get paid to write Ruby 
than either of them. :)