Ruby Impressions

[Paul Boddie]

borovik at hotmail.com (IB) wrote in message news:<f3baf765.0201100904.2049cd96 at posting.google.com>...
> Hello, Paul:
> 
> Just a thought here...
> 
> I am new to Python too and before diving into it I spent some time
> researching what language would satisfy the following:

Apart from just considering the "look and feel" of a language, stating
some useful criteria can be a very good way of evaluating whether a
language is worth using.

[...]

> 3. Must have same or comparable to Perl's number of packages covering
> GUI, databases, expert systems, numerical programming, web, TCP/IP and
> graphics programming. The main packages must be updated on a regular
> basis for new versions of the language and must have ports to all of
> those major platforms.

Many people will accept that library (package) availability is a big
factor in choosing a programming language. That issue is what has kept
me from playing with lots of new languages over the past few years -
perhaps I've become too cynical to look at languages just because
they're different.

[...]

> I have not look into Ruby, though. I thought it is just Yet Another
> Programming Language. It would be interesting to see how items 1-7
> apply to Ruby and see how Ruby does in comparison to Python and Perl.
> I would appreciate if someone will continue the thread with a follow
> up on this.

I didn't really look at Ruby in depth. I asked myself whether Ruby
would really be a big step beyond Python for developing applications,
and I concluded that it probably wouldn't be.

Paul