From: bbense+comp.lang.ruby.Dec.20.01@... Date: 2001-12-21T01:10:11+09:00 Subject: [ruby-talk:29137] Re: But is it Fun? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In article , Ryo Furue wrote: >Michael Neumann wrote in message news:<20011219235124.C2781@michael.neumann.all>... >> Ryo Furue wrote: >[...] >> > Correct. But, I'd like to add that there are lots of people (me >> > included) who have found Ruby is fun! It does bring fun back to me. >> > YMMV, though. >> >> As I am young and not contamined with COBOL, FORTRAN and all the other >> "nice" languages, programming was fun from the beginning. > >Lucky you! Until a few years ago I had long had to program in Fortran >77, which was a horrible experience. So much so that I even now >shudder from fear at a glimpse of Fortran 77 code :-) (I'm >exaggerating. A moment ago I was cutting and pasting a peice of F77 >code a colleague of mine wrote into my own Fortran 90 program. At >least I wasn't trembling :) > >So, I repeat Ruby brings fun back to me. If you want to feel the joy >I have with Ruby, program in F77 for a few years :) > >Sorry if some Fortran 77 fans out there are offended. But, I bet the >intersection between F77 fans and Ruby fans is almost an empty set, so >no one from the former group is listening to me.... > - - I did a lot of my best work in fortran77, even worked on a code preprocesser to turn fortan66 into fortran77. 3 monthes work for something that would take a few days in Ruby. For number crunching on big Iron it's hard to beat Fortran, mostly because of the available tweaked linear algebra libraries. - - Pick the right tool for the job, Languages are just tools. Even though it's fun to play with your table saw, it's hard to drive a screw with it. - - However, on the original question. I'm pretty burnt out on "new" things these days. Most of it seems like either academically interesting but lacking enough tools to do useful things, or just rewarmed over concepts with compromised implementations.. It's surprizing how little innovation is happening in computing.[1] - - While Ruby is most derivative[2], it's the first new language I've seen in the last 7 years that I'm excited about learning. I reminds me of when I first started messing around with NeXTstep and Objective C. I keep finding stuff and say to myself "Man that's a smart way to do things." As opposed to everytime I've attempted to work with C++ or Java where I keep saying, "That's just wrong..." - - Booker C. Bense [1]- Or maybe I'm just an old fart who's out of the loop these days. [2]- At least from what I've seen so far, still have to see more. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBPCILuQD83u1ILnWNAQGd0QP+IpAZr0CJjNvSV+UwaVL4GZKMCH0BWgn0 JEnDdpP1VYoUkFZkcyuQQ8kSOAbz/1QU3E89lrsT/OXwjPX/MEIGUuxzLAfmt3hr d7WwxRelGZCQ5iJ4Lf/OQ3b4xNdb5Uw/oyVCpqc/FhQwS/OPKh9SLgNnyiJmSMjM SqSnVrJVS2A= =HT1R -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --