Re: in search of a compelling reason to use ruby....

On Mon, 10 May 2004 10:42:02 +0000, Ryan Paul wrote:

> i'm a python programmer, and I have recently been hearing a lot about
> ruby. A lot of python people seem to think ruby is in some way inferior,
> but I have yet to find any significant differences between the languages.
> The only differences I have found so far have been superficial syntactic
> things. The only real significant difference I have detected, is the
> absence of a module system in ruby.
> 
> I would like to be able to make an objective and educated comparison. Ruby
> seems to have a relatively small, but intensely devoted following.
> Software that inspires such fervent support from a small community usually
> possesses tremendous power that most people are just too dense to discern
> (eg: ocaml, and BeOS). Consequently, I figured it would be worth my time
> to find out what it is that the fanatics find appealing.
> 
> I am looking for:
>     - examples of tangible features that ruby has, which python doesnt.
>     - examples of scenarios where some facet of, or property specific to
>     ruby contributed to the simplification or improvement of a programming
>     project.
>     - facets of the language which may not necessarily be useful, but are
>     notably creative/innovative.
> 
> Additionally, I realize that there is more to a language than its syntax
> and functionality. As a result, I am also interested in hearing about
> facets of the ruby community and ruby ideology, and anything else that
> ruby programmers feel contribute to their affinity for the language. 
> 
> I have a feeling that most of the things that make ruby worth using can
> also be found in python. From the perspective a python programmer who has
> taken only a precursory glance at ruby, it looks like ruby suggests a
> functional style, while python suggests an imperative style. It also looks
> like ruby may be better suited for quick shell scripts, whereas python is
> better suited for bigger programs. I realize that I probably suffer from
> misconceptions, and i'm looking forward to having them corrected.
> 
> I sincerely hope nobody finds any of my comments offensive, I dont mean
> them as criticisms of ruby. I intentionally withhold criticisms until I am
> better versed in the benefits!
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> -- SegPhault

I just wanted to thank everybody for the great responses. After going
through some of the links you folks provided, and reading through some
documentation, my curiosity has transformed into utter maniacal glee. Ruby
solves a lot of the problems I had with python. Blocks are particularly
enticing. I have spent a lot of time hacking around with python, trying to
abuse metaclasses so I could use the python parser for domain specific
languages. I'm delighted to find that ruby provides such an elegant
mechnaism to facilitate the task. Additionally, it looks like ruby's
syntax is significantly more elegant than python, in many respects.

Now i'm going to port a bunch of my python code for practice! =D

Thanks again!!
--SegPhault