From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2008-02-13T23:50:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby, Perl, Python

J. Cooper wrote:
> As a new programmer (still in school), I'm curious as to the world of
> scripting languages and their roles. I am learning Ruby (played a bit
> with Rails a year ago, but more recently have been using it for my own
> scripting projects), but I have zero experience with Perl and Python,
> which seem to be pretty household names and thus I feel out of the loop.
> 
> I guess what I'm asking is: assuming I become a proficient Rubyist, is
> there a reason to learn Perl or Python (beyond someone handing me a pile
> of code in one of those languages and telling me to maintain it)?
> 
> Thanks,
> J

Well ... in the absence of a financial motive, like being paid to 
maintain code in Perl or Python, I would recommend learning them only if 
there is some functionality implemented in one of them that you want to 
hack on. Focus is a wonderful thing, and Ruby is deep enough that such 
focus will be repaid.

Someone else on this thread recommended learning a functional language 
like Haskell. While knowing a functional style is important in the 
theoretical computer science world, it isn't necessarily going to make 
you a better programmer. I think it's really more the other way around 
-- if you're a good programmer, you'll learn functional programming 
easily and think that it made you better. If you're not a good 
programmer, you're better off getting good in one (imperative) language 
for a few years.