From: ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2002-12-12T06:41:36+09:00
Subject: Re: help -- persuade my boss to adopt ruby

In article <20021211201110.F0B9.XRFANG@hotmail.com>,
Shannon Fang  <xrfang@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Hi Ruby Lovers,
>
>I have a tough task need your help. I try to persuade my boss to adopt
>Ruby in our project. 

Yes, this can be a very tough task indeed and it really depends a lot on 
whether your boss has the technical ability to undertand the issues or 
whether your boss is just set on a solution/language because it's 
currently in vogue.  The former type you can probably deal with, the 
latter... well, it'll be an uphill battle.

 >The project is actually a re-construction of very
>very old current system. during these days, we've been reading and
>documenting the old system. A chance of promoting Ruby arose. I just
>wrote a small program which replaced a now malfunctioning C program. The
>C program is about 300 lines long, however my ruby program is:
>
>File.open("output.txt","w+") do |f|
>    File.open("input.txt").each_line do |line|
>        fld=line.match(/.{4}(.{3})(.{6})(.{3}).{17}(.{6})/)
>        f.print fld[0],"-",fld[1],"-",fld[2],fld[3]
>    end
>end
>
>Now the headache is, they are pretty much determined on Java. I need to
>write a Java version of the above program, just to show them: 1. how
>simple a ruby program comparing to Java; 2. My selling point is that
>when use ruby to program, you can concentrate on business logic, no need
>to care about language issues, like variable declaration, close file
>handle etc.
>
>Can any Java programmers help?

I'm not a Java programmer, though I wrote a few Java programs when it 
first came out ('96?)

Any idea why Java is the preferred language for this application?
Is it an in-house app or is it a web app?  Who (and how many) will be 
developing the app?  If it's just you developing it then Ruby may make a 
lot of sense, but if it's a whole team then your management is probably 
worried that you're the only one who knows Ruby.  You could always make 
the case that if you use Ruby they'll only need you to develop the app 
since it'll be so much easier than doing it in Java but your coworkers may 
not appreciate that argument ;-)

Phil
-- 
"Or perhaps the truth is less interesting than the facts?" 
Amy Weiss (accusing theregister.co.uk of engaging in 'tabloid journalism')
Senior VP, Communications
Recording Industry Association of America