Python vs. Ruby
Posted 28 November 2006, 16:57. (Filed under: Geek by Andrew)
I’m very happy to have heard David, Ben and Jason on the Joyeur weblog discussing how they help people choose between Python and Ruby as programming languages. The gist is: If you think whitespace is important (whitespace is the blank bits of a page – the margins, the separation between paragraphs etc.) then choose Python. If you’re a messy slob, choose Ruby.
Now, I wouldn’t want to comment on the personal habits of Ruby developers, but I was glad to hear David (?) lay down the challenge, “Show me somebody who likes both [Ruby and Python].”
I’m a Python programmer. I like Python – it fits my brain. During the time I’ve been learning a bit of Ruby, I’ve found a couple of cool features, but most of the time it’s just been a hard slog to understand other people’s code snippets, in a language where you can (and often do) write the same code elements in lots of different ways. To a Ruby programmer, this is flexibility. To me, it’s confusion.
Now, I’m happy, because I’ve learned that it’s not just me.
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