From: James <james@...>
Date: 2003-07-30T14:27:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby could be wildly more popular if it had ...

Jeff Mitchell wrote:
> Brackets.
> 
> Huh?  What do you mean "brackets"?

<snip amount='lots' />

> ----
> 
> I am being more serious than it may or may not appear.  I think ruby
> missed out on a big chance here.  It is absurd, but it's true.


When I first glanced through Programming Ruby I was put off by the 
'begin' 'do' 'end' stuff.  Ugh, I thought.

For various reasons I returned to the store and bought the book, learned 
Ruby, and have been that much the happier for it.

But, indeed, I know of others who also had the same first reaction.

Still, I'm not convinced that having a visual similarity to another 
language is a big selling point.  I've read a number of dismissals of C# 
that all seem to moan "it looks just like Java, so why bother."

I find that the best way to sell someone on Ruby is to show them 
something that is difficult or imposible in most other languages.  It's 
often enough to get them to overcome the initial gag reflex over the 
quasi-Pascal keywords.

James


> 
> cheers,
> Matt
> 
>