From: Tim Roberts Date: 2010-11-29T13:40:32+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby's "More than one way to do things." Shadowfirebird wrote: > >> Ruby: "There is more than one way to do it." >> Python: "There should be one - and preferably only one - obvious way to >> do it." > >Programming languages -- at least, good programming languages -- shouldn't >try to make programmers into better programmers, or force them to work in >a certain way in order to get results. (Imagine a toolbox that told you >off for using the wrong screwdriver!) I believe that's almost 100% wrong. A programming language that doesn't try to make better programmers ends up enabling poor programming practices, which ends up producing poor programs. That results in programs and web sites that crash, which brings on a bad reputation for programmers in general. PHP is a great example. It is possible to write good programs in PHP, but it's also very, very easy to write bad programs in PHP. The result is that most of the PHP samples you find on the web are absolute crap -- delicate, unsafe, unmaintainable. The programmers don't realize this, and so the crap reproduces like a virus. A toolbox certainly OUGHT to tell me off if I try to unscrew a slotted head screw with a Philips screwdriver, if that saves me from taking a chunk out of my hand as I do it. -- Tim Roberts, timr@probo.com Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.