From: matz@... (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
Date: 2000-05-26T06:28:27+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:02992] Re: What our Python friends are up to.

Hi,

In message "[ruby-talk:02985] Re: What our Python friends are up to."
    on 00/05/25, jeremy@alum.mit.edu <jeremy@alum.mit.edu> writes:

|>   On the Python newsgroup, questions/requests/complains like the
|>   following have been repeated time to time.
|>
|>   * I dislike code structuring by indentation.
|
|Of course, many Python programmers don't want this to be "solved." :-)

Of course, of course.  I was talking to those who are not satisfied
with Python.  I've never ever tried to convert anybody who lives with
Python happily.

|>   * Why there are two distinct data types, list and tuple?
|
|I think it's helpful to have a distinct type that is immutable.  This
|can simplify reasoning about a program's behavior, e.g. in the face
|of concurrency.

I can tell it may be helpful for some cases, but I'm not sure how much
it is, where other important datatype (i.e. class instance) is
mutable.

|I take it that Ruby has only one sequence-like data type.  Is there
|a mechanism to provide immutability?

Ruby trusts programmers.  In addition, if you really want to prohibit
modifies, Ruby can freeze every object.  Modifies to frozen objects
cause exception.

|What article are you working on?

It will appear on www.informit.com in near future.

							matz.