What's better about Ruby than Python?

[Brandon J. Van Every]

What's better about Ruby than Python? I'm sure there's something. What is
it?

This is not a troll. I'm language shopping and I want people's answers. I
don't know beans about Ruby or have any preconceived ideas about it. I have
noticed, however, that every programmer I talk to who's aware of Python is
also talking about Ruby. So it seems that Ruby has the potential to compete
with and displace Python. I'm curious on what basis it might do so.

--
Cheers, www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.

[Raymond Hettinger]

"Brandon J. Van Every" <va******@3DPro grammer.com> wrote in message
news:bh******** ****@ID-203719.news.uni-berlin.de...

What's better about Ruby than Python? I'm sure there's something. What is
it?

Code blocks, automatic properties, continuations,
and excellent Japanese documentation ;-)
Raymond Hettinge

[Graham Fawcett]

Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

What's better about Ruby than Python? I'm sure there's something.
Of course there is.
What is
it?


You're never going to get an answer to this question that satisfies you.
Even if everyone chips in and describes their favourite features, those
features may be worthless to you personally. So why bother asking?

Try the languages out yourself, both of them; program a non-trivial
application in both languages. See how each feels to you, and which
better suits your development style.

Determine which language has, in your opinion, better support via
documentation and community.

Then come back to the list and tell us which is the better language. ;-)
This is not a troll. I'm language shopping and I want people's answers. I
don't know beans about Ruby or have any preconceived ideas about it.

Exactly: so don't ask for others' ideas. Since you haven't used Ruby
yet, their ideas will simply give you preconceived ideas. What you need
are postconceived ideas; harder to gain, but infinitely more valuable.

-- Graham

[Ville Vainio]

"Brandon J. Van Every" <va******@3DPro grammer.com> wrote in message news:<bh******* *****@ID-203719.news.uni-berlin.de>...

This is not a troll. I'm language shopping and I want people's answers. I
...
also talking about Ruby. So it seems that Ruby has the potential to compete
with and displace Python. I'm curious on what basis it might do so.

:-)

[Asun Friere]

"Brandon J. Van Every" <va******@3DPro grammer.com> wrote in message news:<bh******* *****@ID-203719.news.uni-berlin.de>...

What's better about Ruby than Python? I'm sure there's something. What is
it?

This is not a troll. I'm language shopping and I want people's answers.

When I was language shopping python was up to version 1.5.2 (actually
it was probably up to 1.6.1, but not on the system I was using), and
there were a number of distinct advantages that I felt Ruby held over
Python.

First and foremost, everything in Ruby was (behaved like) an object.
That is now true for Python also.

Secondly you could subclass basic types, again, this is true for
Python as well.

Thirdly the regular expression syntax was Perl-like and built into the
core of the language (althought unlike perl, of course, the syntax
generated an object). In a way this is unaesthetic, certainly
python's approach is much more consistent with the object oriented
nature of the language. However, I use regexp so often, and still
find the re module cumbersome in comparison to Perl's way of doing
things, so imho this is still and advantage (ugly as it may be) that
Ruby holds.

Finally I was apprehensive about the 'signigicant whitespace' issue in
Python, and thought that Ruby's approach was safer. I've definitely
changed my mind on that one. Now all manner of obsceneties are heard
to eminate from my corner of the room whenever I have to program in a
language which requires me to explicitly delimit blocks @!$*&#!!

Some folks also like the existence of code blocks and iterators in
Ruby, (Well Python has its own kind of iterators now as well,) but
that didn't concern me greatly.

In the end two things persuaded me to go with Python. Firstly I work
in a 'Perl shop' and I'm supposed to write Perl (which I sometimes
do), my using Python was already considered using an "obscure
language," Ruby would have been quite beyond the pale. More
importantly, Ruby just did not have anywhere near the range of
libraries that Python did. Specifically Ruby, at that time, did not
have any sensible way of handling XML (ie no SAX or DOM libraries).

In my opinion, most of the advantages Ruby had over Python seem to
have disappeared as Python has developed.

[Asun Friere]

Erik Max Francis <ma*@alcyone.co m> wrote in message news:<3F******* ********@alcyon e.com>...

"Brandon J. Van Every" wrote:

What's better about Ruby than Python? I'm sure there's something.
What is
it?

Wouldn't it make much more sense to ask Ruby people this, rather than
Python people?

Maybe he can't speak Japanese?

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Graham Fawcett wrote:

Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

What's better about Ruby than Python?
You're never going to get an answer to this question that satisfies
you. Even if everyone chips in and describes their favourite
features, those features may be worthless to you personally. So why
bother asking?

You assume too much. My attitudes and criteria aren't yours. I ask because
it's useful to me, not because it's useful to you.
Try the languages out yourself, both of them; program a non-trivial
application in both languages.
I frankly don't have the time, and am not afraid to leverage other people's
experiences to some degree.
Exactly: so don't ask for others' ideas.

You have a profound difference of philosophy that I don't share. You seem
to think other people's opinions are all or nothing.

--
Cheers, www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Asun Friere wrote:

Erik Max Francis <ma*@alcyone.co m> wrote in message
news:<3F******* ********@alcyon e.com>...

"Brandon J. Van Every" wrote:

What's better about Ruby than Python? I'm sure there's something.
What is
it?

Wouldn't it make much more sense to ask Ruby people this, rather than
Python people?

Maybe he can't speak Japanese?

I can't actually. Didn't know that Ruby was Nippocentric. And no, it
wouldn't make "more sense" to ask the Ruby people this. They are going to
give an answer that's biased from the Ruby perspective. For purposes of
this post, I'm interested in the Python biased perspective.

--
Cheers, www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.

[Erik Max Francis]

"Brandon J. Van Every" wrote:

I frankly don't have the time, and am not afraid to leverage other
people's
experiences to some degree.

But surely in the time you've been considering the use of Python --
particularly now, since you claim to have to decided to use it as one of
your main development languages -- you could have taken a few hours or
so it would require to read and really absorb the tutorial (much less,
of course, if you're already a competent programmer, as you claim to
be)? You've certainly spent a great deal more than a few hours since
you first started posting your questions here, which was more than two
years ago (first coherent Python-related questions appeared in 2001
April, according to Google Groups).

--
Erik Max Francis && ma*@alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
__ San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && &tSftDotIotE
/ \ 'Tis man's to fight, but Heaven's to give success.
\__/ Homer

[Sean 'Shaleh' Perry]

> > Try the languages out yourself, both of them; program a non-trivial

application in both languages.

I frankly don't have the time, and am not afraid to leverage other people's
experiences to some degree.

Exactly: so don't ask for others' ideas.

You have a profound difference of philosophy that I don't share. You seem
to think other people's opinions are all or nothing.

these two statements are the crux of the problem.

If you joined a Chevy car mailing list and asked "what is better about Ford
than Chevy?" would you expect to hear intelligent, insightful responses?
Perhaps you would receive good answers, perhaps not. But if you never
actually looked at a Ford how would you know?

You see, by asking here you have people who have already decided against Ruby
for whatever reason. All we can give you is our reasons for not choosing it.
For balance you would HAVE to ask the Ruby people why they chose it over
something like Python.

Stating "well I just don't have time and would like others to decide for me"
just won't get you very far. Might as well being asking the group to finish
your homework assignments.

BTW, my reason, like many here is Ruby looks like Perl and I prefer Python's
syntax and design approach. Not a very scientific reason, about the same as
saying "well, I like blue ones more than red ones".