From: Dan Doel <djd15@...>
Date: 2004-02-02T04:12:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Python 25 times as popular as Ruby !?

Michael campbell wrote:

> No one said that.


Yes, I was exaggerating for effect. :)

> If it doesn't grow, it will eventually die.

Will it? Is Smalltalk still growing today? It probably hasn't grown
for quite some time, yet it's still around if you want to learn it.
How about Eiffel? People are even moving away from C and C++, but I
doubt they'll be dead for many years to come.

In any case (and this is a reply to several posts, not just yours),
Ruby will get popular some day. Or maybe it won't, and we'll either
continue to talk about it here and use it from time to time just
because it's a nice language, or we'll move on to something else.
The world will go on.

What we don't need to do is organize a big campaign to get Ruby
awareness up. We don't need to contact big players like IBM and
whoever to push Ruby for all sorts of programming -- "Look, it
was made for scripting but you should use it for OS programming and
high speed graphics too!" We don't need to go into Slashdot stories
or forums about other languages and post messages going "Ruby rox!
Go check it out!"

Everyone hates evangelists except for those who are already in the
religion. They get offended that you're implying your beliefs are
better than theirs. If someone's curious about Ruby, or wants a
language suggestion, tell them to check it out, but don't become
an evangelist.

In the mean time, posts like, "Python is 25 times more popular than
Ruby" or "Ruby needs Python indenting to be popular!" just waste time.
Ruby will either get there, or it won't, based on whether it's worthy
or not. Don't worry so much about how long it takes.

Waiting is.

- Dan