Re: Ruby Newbie

With all due respect, your response is precisely why I qualified mine  
by breaking it down into just learning to do "web programming" and an  
alternate language-specific recommendation if the OP wants to learn to  
actually "program" (with all the ivory tower, religious zealotry that  
that particular statement engenders).

Paul Stickney wrote:

> If you feel like "debating" how well PHP is as a -language-, look up  
> create_function()

As a matter of fact I don't want to debate any such straw-man argument  
ever again in my life. I grew tired of the language wars about a  
decade ago. However the OP wasn't asking that particular question,  
you've just read my response through your bias and exploded quite  
spectacularly in the wrong direction. Had the OP written: "I want to  
learn to program, to become a better programmer, which language should  
I look at next?" then I'd probably have suggested Ruby first and  
then... well that ought to be sufficient to occupy them for the next  
couple of years.

But that's not what was asked, was it now?

Cheers,
C=


On 13-Jan-08, at 11:34 PM, Paul Stickney wrote:

>> If "web programming" is what you want to do then I recommend starting
>> with PHP. Any shared host or current OS install will probably support
>> PHP out of the box and writing your first PHP web script can be as
>> simple as:
>> From there you can grow it up and the http://php.net/ documentation
>> is excellent.
>
> I have to STRONGLY DISAGREE.
>
> I would NOT recommend learning PHP because it as an ABSOLUTELY AWFUL  
> LANGUAGE.
> If you "learn" it first, you will CUT YOURSELF OFF from an entire
> range of approaches, thinking and solutions! (If you're making a
> living on PHP, use it: if you want to learn, look elsewhere--it's
> easier to "scale thinking" down than to try and scale it up late.)
>
> (Talking about the design, not how "practical" it is because every $2
> web-host supports PHP 4/5. If you feel like "debating" how well PHP is
> as a -language-, look up create_function() and provide a valid
> argument for the implementation.)
> Besides, the PHP documentation has to be the worst site ever. It also
> promotes bad practices.
>
> If you like the "embedded approach" that PHP encourages, there are
> PLENTY of frameworks out there that will allow you write a mash of
> something that is hard to maintain. Some people like mixing things.
> Others don't. The thing is, almost every OTHER language (save PHP, CF,
> JSP and a few more I'm sure) allows you do to this without
> establishing it "as the way".
>
>> To get started doing web development in Ruby is a bit more work, in
>> fact an optimal way is probably to start with Rails (which does most
>> of the heavy lifting for you) and then work backwards from there.
>> Also, the online Ruby docs are considerably less beginner-forgiving
>> that the PHP docs but then again you have this list ;)
>
> Ruby is not Rails. Rails is not Ruby. Rails is just the most popular
> Ruby web framework.
> You can't compare Ruby to PHP in this sense.
> It would be slightly more useful to compare Rails vs. Cake (or
> whatever else you have).
> There are MANY ruby web frameworks that are much easier to "whip out
> small projects" (esp. assuming that you are a beginner that hasn't
> learned the "The Rails Way") than Rails.
>
>> That said, if you want to become enamoured of a language and have a
>> ton of fun simply learning further programming for the sake of
>> programming, I'd start with Ruby and the command line. A first script
>> can be as simple as:
>
> Ruby is a fun language and you'll learn many new constructs (coming
> from VB) if you learn it. Ruby will teach you to code in ways that
> simply aren't feasible in PHP. You'll learn about powerful dynamic OO,
> closures/blocks, mixins, singleton-methods, functional syntax,
> duck-typing, how easy creating a DSL should be, testing, etc...
>
> Ruby even comes with this nifty program called "irb" so you can try
> things interactively. You can also get a start at
> http://tryruby.hobix.com. (If you have a crazy sense of humor, _why
> might just make you learn Ruby as an excuse to keep up with his crazy
> antics...)
>
>> I personally would not start with Java. Perhaps later if neither Ruby
>> nor PHP touch you, but to start with Java might make you think that
>> web programming requires tedium and dreariness before the fun sets in
>> and that just ain't so.
>
> I would avoid starting with Java as well.  Java is a _mediocre_ OO
> language at best and the boilerplate will make you cry--as far as a
> language, it really teaches nil. (For much better statically/strongly
> typed languages, see Scala, Eiffel and various ML implementations as
> examples). That being said, the JVM is the best cross-platform VM I
> know about. Which is why JRuby (yes, Ruby that runs in, and can
> interact with, "Java") runs on it :)
>
> There are MANY languages out there. Unless you are (or will be) paid
> for using a crappy language, don't use it. It's not fun. And you'll be
> cramped in the limited language space. Learn -good- techniques while
> you can. The more -good- approaches you know the better you can code.
>
> Languages to look at (in no particular order, just a small random list
> that comes to the top of my head of languages that can teach you
> things--google will provided hundred of languages with multiple
> variations if you ask):
> Io, Scala, Lisp/Scheme, F#, Ruby, Python, Perl, Self, Smalltalk,  
> Groovy
>
> There are also a million Ruby frameworks.
> Merb. Wuby. Ramaze. Rack+whatever, Camping, Sinatra, Rails, Nitro/ 
> Og, etc, etc.
> Each framework has its own design ideals. Some are huge, some are
> small. But, with the core separation the choice is truly up to you for
> what fits your current (web) project.
>
>
> Opinionated: yes.
>
>