From: Conrad Schneiker <schneiker@...>
Date: 2000-06-18T20:37:39-05:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:03508] Re: Python 3000 -> No, but there's 'R***'

Hi,

"Shae Erisson" writes

<snip>

> You posted the first part of the Ruby FAQ to comp.lang.python at some
> point in the last month or two.

(Minor aside: that was first part of the Newsgroup FAQ for comp.lang.ruby,
which includes pointers to the Ruby FAQ URL; we don't have a postable ASCII
version of the Ruby FAQ yet.)

> Would you be offended if I posted part
> of the Python FAQ to comp.lang.ruby?

So long as you mentioned Python in the subject line, then I wouldn't be
offended at all. And for previously mentioned reasons, I certainly hope that
no one else on comp.lang.ruby would be offended either.

[This is also applicable to the neighboring post on this thread:] I also
would not take offense if you or others additionally stated your (I presume)
belief that Python is a generally superior language to Ruby, nor (when
expressed a possibly shared belief versus as an indisputable fact of nature)
would I regard that as rude or inflamatory, although I would likely
disagree. Obviously opinons about what various people regard as rude or
inflamatory vary widely here.

To recapitulate, I think Ruby is "the latest and greatest"--for what I am
_personally_ interested in--but I certainly don't regard Ruby as _the_
perfect tool for everyone or everything--for many things Python or Perl
would be more suitable (for various reasons of personal taste, institutional
compatibility, existing module support, and so on). So I don't think usage
of, let alone (newsgroup) interest in, Python, Perl, or Ruby is inherently
mutually exclusive for everyone, although it certainly is for many diehard
purists. But "many" is not "everyone". Likewise, I certainly don't think
that it is out of line for others to provide comp.lang.ruby readers who fall
into this category pointers to other relevant resources from time to time.

Since Ruby has borrowed heavily from other languages and I believed that its
further development will benefit from knowing what people happened to like
better in related languages and knowing what developments were underway in
related languages (among other concerns), I deliberately minimized the
restrictiveness of the comp.lang.ruby charter so as to *not* encourage the
sort of the insular and puritanical mind-set that takes hair-trigger offense
at the mention of other languages or of other language preferences--which I
had too-often observed on comp.lang.perl.misc. The only thing I ask people
who post to comp.lang.ruby is to make their subject lines appropriate, so
people can readily skip stuff that doesn't interest them.

> However you answer, it doesn't seem
> polite to me.

<Stuff about various other dislikes snipped.>

> There are times when it's completely natural to
> talk about Ruby on comp.lang.python. But, small irritations add up, and
> repeated off-topic Ruby advocacy, even of a very small caliber, is not
> what I want to read on comp.lang.python.

So I've noticed. :-)

I'm also crossposting this back to comp.lang.ruby to make sure others do as
well, and I'll leave it at that.

Conrad