From: Ben Giddings <bg-rubytalk@...>
Date: 2004-04-06T03:55:08+09:00
Subject: Re: deciding between ruby and python

Vadim Nasardinov wrote:
>     class Foo:
>         "A poor man's closure"
> 
>         def __init__(self, state):
>             self.__call__ = self._call
>             self.state = state
> 
>         def _call(self, x, y):
>             return x * self.state + y
> 
> 
>     foo1 = Foo(1)
>     foo2 = Foo(42)
> 
>     print foo1(2,3)
>     print foo2(2,3)

Ah yes, in one fell swoop, demonstrating almost all the things I find 
annoying about Python:
* 'self' as the first parameter of methods, which is one of the sources
   of that whole "Python's OO is a hack" thing.  Now you can argue that
   it's just a (very odd) style choice, but I can't help but see that as
   ugly and hackish.
* Defining a method with 'n' parameters, calling it with 'n-1'
   parameters.  An artifact of how Python's OO is done, but so very
   confusing and 'hackish'
* __So__ __Many__ __Underscores__!! (self.__call__ = self._call)???
* Constructors look exactly like functions.  No 'new' or any other
   similar hint that it's a constructor.

All it's really missing is the mishmash of functional, imperative and OO 
programming like:

':'.join(map(lambda str: "0x%s"%str, mac_address.split(':')))

Python and Ruby are effectively equals.  They take about the same amount 
of time to run a script, they have about the same level of abstraction. 
  They're both dynamic typed.  The only thing is: Python is ugly, Ruby 
is pretty.  Now sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my eye 
prefers to behold Ruby.  :)

Ben