Title: The Wall

Quick thought on Ruby

After reading Francis' book review of "The Ruby Way", I thought I'd share a quick thought based on what I've read on a number of websites (although I haven't actually tried Ruby). To compare Ruby with Python, as is so often done, does not really reflect Ruby's design objectives; Ruby was meant to be a successor to Perl. In Japan, Perl and Ruby are often mentioned together, and there is even a "Perl/Ruby conference" in Japanese. Perl and Ruby both have quite complex syntaxes, and people who like the simpler design of Python are for this reason unlikely to like either Perl or Ruby.

I'm sure that Perl and Ruby have their place even if they're not the One True Language (if there is such a thing). I know there are some ACCU members out there who are Perl programmers; perhaps one of them might like to write us a defense of the Perl/Ruby design philosophy.

Silas S Brown