On Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 1:35 PM, Andrew Grimm <[email protected]> wrote:
> Ryan Bigg asked on twitter what people liked about ruby. My thoughts
> couldn't be crammed into 140 characters.
>
> Blocks are something special. One minute you're using a less verbose
> `for` loop, the next you're on your way to thinking about functional
> programming, and how to hide information and implementation that isn't
> relevant right now.
>
> Apart from that, a lot of what I like are in terms of "It avoids the
> pitfall X of language Y".
> * It doesn't require you to declare variable types
> * (For Rails, not ruby as such) Getting information about
> database-based objects is done for you, you don't necessarily have to
> write your own SQL query, like framework-less PHP
> * Code is somewhat more readable than Perl, and you don't have to
> worry about whitespace (Python)
>
> I also like the ruby community, and its libraries.
I do like the freedom - there are very few abstraction patterns that
aren't in principle achievable with Ruby, even if the lack of static
typing means that some aren't feasible. The lack of attention to
backwards compatibility is a pain in the arse - I still can't believe
they changed scoping so much between 1.8 and 1.9. The reason I keep
coming back is pretty much entirely the community.
(I disagree with you completely about blocks - they're a neat
syntactic hack, but they obscure the possibility of using true first
class functions.)
mark
--
A UNIX signature isn't a return address, it's the ASCII equivalent of a
black velvet clown painting. It's a rectangle of carets surrounding a
quote from a literary giant of weeniedom like Heinlein or Dr. Who.
-- Chris Maeda
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby
or Rails Oceania" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en.
