From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2002-09-04T02:47:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby aesthetics

----- Original Message -----
From: "William Djaja Tjokroaminata" <billtj@z.glue.umd.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: Ruby aesthetics


> I just want to add that in my opinion, what really make Python so popular
> are, among other things:
>
>     1) Indentation-based syntax
>     2) "There is only one way to do it"
>
> I think 1) at the time Python was introduced (several years ago) was
> really "revolutionary" (well, yes, there were already several non-popular
> languages that were indentation-based such as ABC(?)), as all other
> mainstream languages such as C/C++, Java, and Perl have the free-form
> syntax.  Making the syntax to be indentation-based really enforces clean
> coding, independent of the programmer's discipline.
>
> Regarding 2), combined with 1), it really just makes all Python codes very
> consistent.  We know what exactly to write to accomplish something, and it
> is very rare that we encounter a cryptic code.

This is not a flame! :)

I think what you're saying is very interesting, because it's
almost the exact opposite of my opinion.

Disclaimer: I've never used Python.

I do think the idea of "significant indentation" is interesting,
but I would want the tab character to be illegal. (Yes, I know
the arguments in favor of tabs; let's not get into that one.)
It's bad enough mixing tabs and spaces in an ordinary language,
but in Python it seems like an additional inconvenience.

>   I am still grieving that
> Ruby carries Perl's idiom of statement modifier
>
>     ..... if/unless/while/until .....

I like it. :)

> Also, in Ruby there are several method synonyms, such as Array
> "indexes" and "indices", which unnecessarily add more complications to the
> language.

I like these, too. :)

> I think these are several reasons why not all people migrated from Python
> to Ruby.  (And of course we all know the superiority of Ruby to
> Python, right? :) )  I am just speculating, that, since Ruby was written
> after Python was introduced, if these two factors (among other
> things) have been taken into Ruby, probably Ruby had replaced Python to a
> great extent...

Is this true? Ruby was written after Python was introduced?
When was Python born?

Hal