From: Conrad Schneiker <schneik@...>
Date: 2000-07-13T20:41:48-05:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:03989] Re: Principle of least effort -- another Ruby virtue.

Hi,

Dave Thomas wrote:

> Isn't "Principle of Least Effort" a Perl virtue. though?

I'm sure that was one of the early aims of Perl (and one of the aims of most other
mainstream languages for that matter!), and it was certainly a partially attained
one in many cases, when compared to an earlier generation of tools. But the
limitations of Perls early foundations are showing in the OO age as it has turned
into something of a one language "Leaning Tower of Babel", which has since been
leapfrogged by Python, and which in turn has been surpassed by Ruby. The important
point is that Ruby actually/comparatively excells in this overall virtue.

> Or at least, couldn't it be confused as one. And if it could, then I'm not sure
> I'd like to see Ruby sharing it.

Well, some people call Perl a {great, powerful, innovative, flexible, productive,
etc.} programming language, so I guess to avoid confusion we shouldn't call Ruby a
{great, powerful, innovative, flexible, productive, etc.} programming language
either, should we? :-)

Of course if most of the Perl community is liable to the sorts of confusion you are
worried about, then we could be facing the prospects of a 100x increase in Ruby
users.

--
Conrad Schneiker
(This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)