[aklug] Re: Perl 5 OOP

Quoting "Joshua J. Kugler" <joshua@eeinternet.com>:

>
> I was interested in Ruby until I read that it was "Perl-ized LISP."
> Then I decided to stay *VERY* far away. :)
>

I've never heard it explained this way...I don't know lisp very well =20
to be able to make that comparison, however.

Chris asked "What's so great about Ruby?". This kind of question =20
smacks of the start of a language war, which I'm not capable of waging =20
at this point.

However, I will say why I like it. The following statements are not =20
to be taken that the other languages don't have these features and =20
that they are inadequate in some way.

Just like Josh Kugler has his reasons for liking Python, Art has his =20
reasons for liking Perl and Josh Rhoades has some other preference, I =20
have my preference for Ruby.

Some of the things I like about Ruby aren't really Ruby specific and =20
I'm also sure that if I spent more time, I could find similar =20
solutions in their perspective languages...so again...these are just =20
my particular preferences.

  - The community has been more than friendly when asking questions. =20
More specifically on this particular issue is that when I ask "stupid" =20
questions, it usually gets answered with the info need along with the =20
RTFM link.

  - I like that I can use Ruby as a scripting language, for larger =20
style programs and for Web based programing. Again, this is true for =20
most of the other languages.

  - I found the learning resources for Ruby to be plentiful and =20
structured how I think.

  - I found implementing threads easy in Ruby...however, I've never =20
even tried in other languages.

  - Ruby was my first OO language....I'm sure that has impact.

Ruby does have its downfalls, some are:

  - It can eat up more memory when running than some of the others.

  - some of the syntax is kind of funky relative to other =20
languages...so this could lead to some problems.

  - It isn't the fastest of the languages available.

Moore's law have helped me with a two of the downfalls above, but =20
that's no reason to not address those issues. I know that 1.9.1 has =20
been moving towards fixing some of these issues.

To Chris specifically: I'm never going to convince you to use Ruby. =20
You'll have to do that yourself. I'd even suggest that if you have to =20
be convinced, you shouldn't use it.

However, I do think it is reasonable to try it on a few things and see =20
how it works.

There is hardly any time commitment by going to http://tryruby.org/ =20
and working with it there.

Overall, my reasons aren't very "technical" in nature....YMMV.

Mike B.

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Received on Thu Jan 7 08:49:49 2010