From: David Masover Date: 2010-07-25T06:21:20+09:00 Subject: Re: client-side Ruby on iPad/iPhone? On Wednesday, July 21, 2010 12:22:58 pm Tony Arcieri wrote: > On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 11:55 PM, David Masover wrote: > > I'll concede that they may be difficult, and I'm sure I'm underestimating > > the > > instanceof problem above. I just don't agree that verifying the type of > > something is essential functionality. It seems like I'm reaching for > > Activesupport to give me 5.minutes.ago far more often than I'm reaching > > for jQuery to tell me whether something's an array or not. > > > > What else is broken by default? I'll give you a skin-deep ugliness, sure. > > You know, we can beat around the bush all day about this. I think I'll > just end on this note: > > http://jmesnil.net/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/RzRcw.jpg You could likely draw a similar comparison with many other languages. From the preface of "The Good Parts": "This is not a book for beginners... This is not a book about Ajax or web programming... This is not a book for dummies. This book is small, but it is dense. There is a lot of material packed into it." From the preface of "The Definitive Guide": "Chapter 1 provides an introduction to JavaScript... Chapters 2 through 6 cover some bland but necessary reading; these chapters cover the basic information you need to understand when learning a new programming language.... "The next six chapters... document parts of the language that will not be familiar to you even if you already know C or Java.... "Part II explains JavaScript in web browsers.... Part III and IV contain reference material covering core JavaScript and client-side JavaScript, respectively. These parts document relevant objects, methods, and properties alphabetically." If nothing else, it's the difference between a best-practices Ruby book for experienced developers, and a comprehensive introduction to Ruby and Rails for non-programmers. It's the difference between saying "Don't use mass assignment" and a screencast walking you through all the details of what mass- assignment is, how it could be exploited, how to fix it, and what happens when people try to exploit it again. I can respect wanting to end what could be a very long and offtopic flamewar, so I hope that was a tongue-in-cheek thing, and not an attempt to present actual evidence. I just couldn't let that go unchallenged.