From: Ben Giddings <ben@...>
Date: 2003-07-16T23:21:56+09:00
Subject: Other languages' features in Ruby

Hrm, well I'm a Ruby/Java/C/C++/Python/Perl/Lisp/Javascript/PHP... 
um... and others programmer.

On Wednesday, July 16, 2003, at 09:36  AM, Peter Hickman wrote:
> We've had Java/C++/Whatever programmers ask for type checking, 
> operator overloading, polymorphism and a whole host of compile time 
> checking.

Is there a good way to get what type checking does for you?  Maybe some 
kind of ruby-lint program that looks through your source code and tries 
to see if you're making odd assumptions about the type of your 
variables?  Or (much more useful in my opinion) something that will try 
to catch the use of uninitialized variables?  This would be helpful in 
catching typos, like calling the class variable @my_var, but ending up 
using it as @myvar.

> Lisp programmers have enquired about macros (occasionally).

Are there good ways of doing what Lisp macros do for you?

Maybe the fact people keep asking for this points to the need for a set 
of FAQs that pick features from other languages and explain if they 
exist in Ruby, how to use them, and if they're not there, why not.  
Maybe such a FAQ already exists, I don't know.

Ben