From: Larz Date: 2009-01-09T12:09:42+09:00 Subject: Re: a good career choice ? > Your entire response is based on your own opinions. I don't recall care > if people like is dislike any certain language, but just like saying > people in other languages claim ruby is all hype, there are those that > buy into the claim that languages like Perl are fading away -- > especially when you say things like "I would never want to work at a > company that wanted to develop some new app in perl." That's > preposterous. You can replace Perl in that sentence with PHP, C, C++, > Python, Java, etc. It's all personal view. It's my opinion when I am an employee, when management makes a decision, then it's not just an opinion, it's what you get stuck with. > > In fact, one could say the same thing about another language and use > "ruby" in the example of "never wanting to work at a company that uses > ruby". The passion, ignorance and arrogance regarding "language wars" > goes both ways. It's pretty short sighted to call Perl "old > technology" because you happen to like Ruby more. I don't know why > people can't be more reasonable and less biased. I prefer Perl, but > I'm not here talking badly about ruby -- I'm here because I use it, > too. Therefore, there's no reason to get defensive or think you need > to slam another language. Perl is hardly old, just because it's older. > Ruby has been around for a very long time as well, so I guess by your > logic, it's technically ran its course, too? It's only old because object oriented programming is an important modern paradigm. I look it maybe like archery is old, guns are newer. That maybe not a good example because I like archery, but in a real war you'd have to go with a gun. OO enables you to write larger apps that fit together more easily if you design the app correctly. Some languages are older in that sense, but maybe it's not worth arguing about as if you are a programmer you might be biased and many people are .. > Seriously, who cares? No one said the OP should learn Perl instead of > ruby, and of course there will be support and bias toward ruby, since > this is a ruby group. It's all about choice and preference. If you > want to get down to the base of the debate that appears to have evolved > from the question (big surprise there), then people shouldn't be > encouraged to use a different language just because someone else finds > it interesting, or because it is newer (that doesn't make it better). > That's usually the reason why, and people shouldn't drop the idea of > developing a project in languages they know well, just to code in a > newer language someone else is excited about. The project should be > coded the most efficient, secure and stable as possible, which means > sticking to what you know. If you know ruby better, use ruby. If you > have the time and find ruby interesting, learn it anyway. It never > hurts to get good at something you might not be good at now (in which > case a lot of people could actually benefit from learning Perl, or PHP, > or Java, if they know ruby and have the desire and motivation to learn > something else). I can't argue with that except everyone may have their own agenda. You might find it frustrating to learn something newer, but it's not just newer in that it was just invented, presumably languages are advancing .. > As for legacy code, there are a lot of languages that have legacy code, > some not very good -- and that includes ruby. Some people can code > well and some can not. Some people abandon code and some do not. I > really fail to see how one has to do with another. If you like heavy > OO type programming languages, then yeah, ruby would probably suit you > better than Perl or PHP. If you don't agree or don't care, then there > are a lot of other languages that work equally as well, which aren't > going anywhere. In closing, check the statistics and there are a lot > more larger sites that most people online use daily that are developed > in Perl (yes, new code developed today and more yesterday), being so > much for your theory that you'd not work for any company that developed > new applications in Perl. You may as well denounce any new > applications coded in Python, PHP, C, C++, Java, too. C, C++ are well suited for embedded and compiled apps, Java has it's place as well. > I get it, you > like ruby, you don't care for Perl, that's fine with me, but keep the > claims on level and fair. There's no anti-ruby witch hunting in this > thread, so practice what you preach. Since no one's coming up with > untrue reasons why ruby isn't for them, why state your opinion about > Perl as being factual? Don't be so closed minded that you trash talk > languages you don't agree with, because it makes you no better than the > Perl programmers you mention whom unfairly trash talk ruby. They are > both good languages and neither are going anywhere. There are no doubt some highly talented and smart people that use Perl, it's not that perl is irrelevant, I didn't say that. Ruby will someday peak out as well ..