Re: How's ruby compare to it older brother python

I agree that flaming the question is not appropriate and its also bad for
the Ruby community in general.  One of the things that attracted to me to
the Ruby language was the open-mindedness of the list members and the
friendliness of the Ruby community.   One of the things that amazed me about
the Ruby community (at least in the past) was that they almost never flamed
people who discussed the advantages of other languages over Ruby.  In fact
sometimes they even admitted certain languages had advantages over Ruby.  I
also thought Matz was very humble and unassuming (maybe because he is
Japanese) considering that he is the creator of the language. In fact I
don't think I have ever heard Matz flame anyone.  On the other hand the
exact opposite is true of the Python list.  Guido has flamed people who
asked reasonable questions and  based on my limited experience on the Python
list I found him incredibly rude.  Additionally the Pythonistas in general
appear to me to be very narrow minded and intolerant.  One reason why I have
avoided learning Lisp is that the Lispers are unbelievebly intolerant of
anyone questioning their language.  It saddens me to see the same thing
starting to happen on the Ruby list.

I do not agree that this topic is not appropriate to discuss.  This is a
topic that ought to be rehashed periodically because the are many possible
comparisons that can be made between Python and Ruby.  It is possible to
compare the languages with respect to speed, power, syntax, libraries,
community, philosophy, readability, beauty etc.  Additionally both languages
are changing so there will always be new things to compare.  Comparisons are
useful in general because they help us to understand a languages strengths
and weaknesses and how it can be improved in the future.  Also there is no
reason a person cannot use both Ruby and Python.  They are not mutually
exclusive.  Knowing something about each languages strengths and weaknesses
would be helpful for deciding whether to use Python or Ruby on a given
project.

As to the question of the time wasted responding to these questions I think
that is a total red herring.  If you don't want to waste time responding,
don't read the message or just delete it.  No one is forcing anyone to do
anything.  How long does it take to press the delete button?  Probably less
time than it does for the guy who asked the question to search the archives
for the answer to the question.  I think the real reason that people don't
like this sort of question is that they feel it is really an attack on the
Ruby language which they take personally.  I really don't understand why
anyone would take any of these questions personally even if they are stealth
attacks on the Ruby language.  Why not just answer the question
respectfully, referencing the archives if necessary and let that be the end
of it.

Regards,
Trevor


-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Hilton [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 11:44 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: How's ruby compare to it older brother python


Amen, brother.

"Dan Doel" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:[e-mail]...
> I don't really mind this type of question a whole lot, but it does occur a
> lot. Personally, I think it's best dealt with links to existing
discussions.
>
> There's no need to discuss this topic over and over when there are
archives
> where it has all been said. It doesn't take any longer to read the
archives
> than it does to read new posts saying the same things.
>
> Plus this particular topic attracts more trolling than the average
ruby-talk
> thread, so they tend to grow huge with people making personal attacks at
each
> other.
>
> I don't really think flaming the question was entirely appropriate, but
> perhaps someone should collect a bunch of links to old ruby-talk posts and
> other resources so we can have a canned response to this topic and leave
it
> at that.
>
> - Dan
>
>