Python and Ruby , object oriented questions

[Monolingual Meowbot]

Aahz Maruch wrote:
> [Hey, Greg, just a friendly reminder to please include attributions for
> your quotes.]

The omission was deliberate.  No point in dragging someone else's name
through the muck along with my tangent.

> While I agree with your rant to a certain extent, it's also true IMO
> that learning some languages can serve to add confusion.  Trying to
> remember the syntax for a while loop or a function definition gets old
> rather fast.

Agreed, there is some of that, but it seems (to me) to be balanced or
even outweighed by the opportunity to apply neat tricks from one
language to another.

But, back to the first question.  Does the cross-pollination make life
harder overall for some to get things done?  This isn't an entirely
idle question.  When it comes time to expose an API or scripting in an
application, it becomes worthwhile to make sure the interface is
relatively painless just like any other UI element.

With one project I'm concocting, I'm currently trying to decide
whether it's best to offer one extension language, take it or leave
it; embed a slew of languages, catering to more user preferences but
complicating the implementation and inevitably the bug potential; or
offer some sort of language-neutral IPC and live with the perforance
penalty of shoving everything through a pipe or socket.  One thing I
have trouble measuring is whether a significant number of people
really *are* that attached to the idea of sticking to one language for
everything, everywhere.