From: Drew Mills <tamills@...>
Date: 2002-09-07T06:48:09+09:00
Subject: RE: Larry Wall's comments on Ruby

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Hunt [mailto:andy@toolshed.com]
> Just learning a new concept doesn't count as surprising,
> but being led astray by inconsistent behavior does.
>
Learning a new concept that does not fit with your worldview does count as
surprising.  And it will continue to be surprising until you change your
worldview.  And beginner's are still taught a procedural worldview.

You just can't say that Ruby isn't surprising.  If someone come's to Ruby,
really likes the OO-everwhere aspect, they will often say, "Wow".  And guess
what, they were just surprised.  Otherwise, they would say, "Big Deal, I've
been doing that in language X for the last 4 years at school.  Of course
everthing's an object."  But they don't.  Because that's not what they're
taught.

And if that same procedural person has to re-organize his worldview to do
everything in an OO-everwhere fashion, that person will be surprised over
and over until he successfully changes his worldview.

Let's be clear:  I'm not looking for procedural everywhere, I'm OO all the
way.  But Larry hit the nail on the head that beginners will be surprised.
It might be a nice surprise!  But it will be a surprise.  His choice to not
surprise them with OO can arguably be judged short-sighted.  But his
statement about their surprise is spot-on.

Another way of saying it, "Since our beginners are taught inconsistencies,
they may well be suprised by consistency."

Drew