[Tutor] Help deciding between python and ruby

[Alan Gauld]

"Luke Paireepinart" <rabidpoobear at gmail.com> wrote

>>  I agree, but I can see how some people don't like it.  It's similar to 
>> the
> Java vs. C++ debate I guess, Java is forced OO and C++ is optional.

While this is a genuine complaint for Java I have to be fair and say
that Ruby does a good job of hiding its OOP purity when you don't
need it.

Any function defined outside of a class automatically gets created
as a static method of a "secret" hidden toplevel class that is never
explicitly instantiated. So for the programmer you can 99% of the
time forget that Ruby always requires OOP and use it just as you
would non OOP Python.

And of course so many of Python's types are now objects that it's
virtually impossible to write a truly non OOP program in Python! So
that point is rather moot for the Python/Ruby debate. - IMHO of course :-)

-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/