From: Bauduin Raphael <rb@...>
Date: 2003-12-01T05:27:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby vs Python (IMHO)

Phil Tomson wrote:
> In article <20031129184817.GA1426@math.umd.edu>,
> Daniel Carrera  <dcarrera@math.umd.edu> wrote:
> 
>>Hi all,
>>
>>I guess I just want to share a tiny "case study" from a project that I'm 
>>doing in Python and which I wish I could do in Ruby instead.
>>
>>I am writing a BibTeX filter for the OpenOffice project (BibTeX is the 
>>bibliographic cousin of LaTeX).  I am doing it in Python because, of the 
>>languages with stable bridges to the OOo component model (UNO) Python is 
>>the one I like best.
> 
> 
> Hmmm.... so what would it take to include Ruby in the set of languages 
> with 'stable bridges to the OOo component model'?
> 

There was a project about making python modules available to ruby, but 
it was not developed anymore ( 
http://www.goto.info.waseda.ac.jp/~fukusima/ruby/python/doc/ )

I mention it because the question arose on ruby-garden (IIRC) about 
which modules available in Python were lacking for Ruby and I see this 
as an example :-)


Raph


> 
>>My requirements are mostly related to regular expressions and string 
>>methods.  This is an area where Ruby really shines and is light-years 
>>ahead of the competition.
>>
>>Regular expressions in Ruby are infinitely eaiser and more sensible to 
>>use than in Python.
>>
>>Ruby:
>>  str =~ /^(#{char})\s*{\s*(#{char}+),(.*)}/
>>
>>
>>Python:
>>  regex = re.compile(r"^(" + char + "+)\s*{\s*(" + char + "+),(.*)}")
>>  regex.match(str)
>>
> 
> 
> Ouch, that's painful.
> 
> Phil