From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2003-08-21T07:15:28+09:00
Subject: Re: What attracts me to Ruby

On Thursday, August 21, 2003, 2:49:35 AM, Tim wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 23:41:16 +0900, Peter Hickman
> <peter@semantico.com> wrote:

>>However as a Perl programmer Python didn't seem such a great deal, it was just 
>>too close to Perl for me. Ruby however had a large enough gap to make it very 
>>interesting (much cleaner OO than Perl).

> Interesting view.  I am comfortable with Python, which I came to from
> C++/Pascal (not Java) but am struggling with Ruby, and I /thought/ it
> was because Ruby was too close to Perl (which I also struggle with).
> Looks as if I'll have to find another explanation!

I'll try to add something worthwhile here, because it's a thought that
has struck me often.

Many Pyhonistas (and perhaps others?) say Ruby is too Perlish for
their taste.  What they generally mean, I think, is that Ruby has $x
variables, and some syntax similarities (if, while, ... modifiers).
The judgement is true but:
 - superficial, because Ruby is deeply elegant, which shouldn't be
   ignored among surface comparisons
 - irrelevant, because the "too-Perlish" fears (unreadable code,
   different ways of doing things) don't materialise in practice; Ruby
   code tends to be elegant, readable, etc. because coders don't abuse
   the language

On the contrary, I have always considered Python to be too Perlish for
me at a deeper level, because although it tries hard to do OO better
than Perl, it's still wasn't part of the original language design.
Its OO capabilities are a "feature" in the language, rather than the
wellspring of the language.

Python is known to have attracted mostly fristrated Perl programmers.
Why it didn't grab me is that although I was a frustrated Perl
programmer, that's only 10% of what I was programming-wise, and I
didn't see enough difference to make it worth it to replace that 10%.

What attracted me to Ruby, then, was its elegance, which made me
believe I could use it for more than 10% of my programming, which
makes it more worth learning.

Cheers,
Gavin