Why Ruby?

[Christopher Nicholson-Sauls]

On 12/10/10 19:26, Ary Borenszweig wrote:
> http://vimeo.com/17420638
> 
> A very interesting talk.
> 
> I used to like D. To write code in a high level while at the same
> time being very close to the machine, with class invariants, unit
> tests and many other features seemed very appealing. But I always
> felt there was something wrong.
> 
> About a year ago I met Ruby. Now I find languages like Java, C#,
> Python and D kind of ugly and uncomfortable. Why? Exactly because of
> what it is said in that video.
> 
> This is not to start a flame war or trolling, it's just to show you
> why I changed my mind so much about D, and why I think (IMHO) you
> should care about naming conventions (like bearophile says), more
> powerful unittests (and not having unittests integrated into the
> language but rather being able to build your own test frameworks
> with ease) and stop caring about being C-syntax friendly. The world
> doesn't need that many semicolons and parenthesis. :-)

I'm a strange one.  I use Ruby, and D.  (And a couple of others...)  I
use the tool that feels best for the job, whatever that may be at a
given time.  Sitting on a disc somewhere are some personal tools I used
to use when working with D... which are themselves written in Ruby (and
bash script, but hey).

Then again, I'm the same one who really really likes Ruby on Rails...
and yet still does most things with PHP.  Why?  Well for one, because
for plenty of projects, Rails is less an aid and more a hindrance.  (And
yes, before someone brings it up, I'm well aware of CakePHP... and don't
care for it much.)

There are times in D when I find myself wishing, momentarily, for the
loose typing of Ruby... but then there are times in Ruby when I find
myself wishing for stricter typing.

There are times when I wish D had open classes... but then there are
times when Ruby's open classes give me headaches.

I could go on like this... but the point was really just: use the right
tool for the job.  Keep several tools in your toolbox.  There is no "THE
BEST LANGUAGE OMG!!!"  There is just the best one for a given programmer
in a given scenario.  Some of the things I've done could probably have
been better written in, say, Pike!  But I don't really know Pike (very
well), and don't feel the need to learn it just for those few things
that might have benefited.

-- Chris N-S