On 5/1/2020 5:09 AM, Jim Jagielski wrote:
Ruby is a fun language. It is also a different language, such that skills in
Ruby don't necessarily migrate to skills in other languages all that readily.
IMO, it is a niche language and I think its popularity has been waning lately.
It's not a growth language. (again, all this is my own 2c)
node.js is different. It's popular, heavily used and has a syntax which is very
similar to Java, C, et.al. that picking it up is pretty easy. It's a valuable
language to learn.
I've no dog in this fight, but IMO node.js would be the more obvious and
"correct" choice.
That is actually an argument, for me, in favor of learning Ruby.
I am retired, so there is no issue of future career. Apache lets me
scratch my programming itch without the constraints of an actual job. My
only criterion in selecting between the languages is what will best help
Whimsy. Ruby being less popular means more Whimsy volunteers who already
know one of the languages will know JavaScript. Even if, in the long
term, Whimsy switches entirely to node.js, Ruby will be needed for a while.
For volunteers who know neither, many will have only worked with members
of the C family, such as C++, Java, and C#. JavaScript is essentially a
script-writing member of that family, and will be relatively easy for
them. I have programmed in many different languages, some very different
from the C family, such as Fortran, Cobol, Snobol, Matlab, Forth,
Verilog, and Perl, so I am well prepared for learning a different language.
On Apr 30, 2020, at 1:13 PM, Patricia Shanahan <p...@acm.org> wrote:
After a few days attending to other things, it is time for me to get back to
learning Whimsy.
I can go in either of two directions, Ruby or node.js. Each involves getting fluent in a
programming language in which I've only written tiny programs, as well as learning my way
around Whimsy. Neither language looks particularly difficult, except perhaps for
understanding "this" in JavaScript's object and class model.
If all of Whimsy gets converted soon to node.js, time spent learning Ruby would
be wasted, and I should go for node.js. On the other hand, if substantial
portions of Whimsy remain in Ruby learning it will contribute to the bus factor
for those parts of Ruby.
Opinions? Any other considerations?
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