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Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Ruby

Has anybody here used the Ruby programming/scripting language? How does it compare to Python?

Dusty

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kakabaratruskia

Member

From: Santiago, Chile

Registered: 2003-08-24

Posts: 596

Re: Ruby

I've read that it's completely object oriented, more than python, and that it's even more popular than python in japan. Looks like it's good for scripting, but not for larger projects

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Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: Ruby

I've read that it's completely object oriented, more than python, and that it's even more popular than python in japan.

That's all I could find out about it too, without actually trying it...

Looks like it's good for scripting, but not for larger projects

So they said about python. :-D  I can't see any 3D libraries for Ruby though, so I'm skipping it for the moment.

Dusty

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jochen

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2004-06-01

Posts: 102

Re: Ruby

Hello,

ruby is the most amazing language that I've ever spoken it's really great. I can't compare it with python, since I never tried this language. I won't say that ruby is only for scripting - it's really powerfull. I just can encourage you to have a closer look on it. A good starting point is the online book http://www.rubycentral.com/book/index.html Programming Ruby.
The ruby homepage  http://ruby-lang.org/ is temporarly not available. I heard something like they were cracked a few weeks ago.

Try it out - if you got questions, don't hesitate. I'll try to anwer...

best regards
jochen

farphel

Forum Fellow

From: New Hampshire - USA

Registered: 2003-09-18

Posts: 250

Website

Re: Ruby

I skimmed over it about 6-8 months ago (might have been longer than that even), and at the time, what kept me from investigating further was an incomparable stdlib/builtin library to what python possesses.  Things like regex, python's os/sys modules, select/signal don't (didn't) seem to exist.

The syntax throws me a bit because it's not really like a programming language; it's almost more akin to natural language.  It would probably make more sense to someone that hasn't coded before versus someone who's coded in a bunch of other "traditional" languages.

I can't speak to a performance comparison, but as far as I'm concerned, python is Fast Enough (tm) for all my needs.  Python interfaces well with C/C++ modules if speed is an issue.  I have no idea how easy it is to do that with Ruby.

At the very least, python's name has a cooler heritage, being a Monty Python reference

My humble opinion,
farphel

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kumo

Member

From: VARESE - Italy

Registered: 2004-04-02

Posts: 49

Website

Re: Ruby

I like Ruby a lot and it is my scripting language of choice. It does (and did!) have regular expressions, but I am not sure about the other things that farphel refers to since I don't know what they are!

The syntax does take some getting used to but then it becomes pretty natural. I'm not sure if it is easier for people who haven't programmed before because the notion of everything being an object could be a bit confusing, however even if you have programmed before there is a big difference between C#, Pascal, and XSLT, for example. http://pleac.sourceforge.net/ contains lots of examples of how to do the same thing in different languages so if you are interested have a look there!

I am sure you have seen the main ruby links anyway but I will repeat the ones I can remember just in case:
RubyGarden wiki
http://dev.rubycentral.com/links/ *lots* of links
Programming Ruby, The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide - I agree with jochen's recomendation

And if you have any problems I will try to help as well!

kumo

RTF

Member

Registered: 2004-04-26

Posts: 27

Re: Ruby

I'm a Python fan. I investigated Ruby, because Ruby fans claimed it was "like Python but better" but from the little I tried, there wasn't enough obvious difference or improvement to justify learning the syntax and libraries over again.

That said, they are very much in a similar marketspace - that of "readable, well-structured, powerful scripting languages" and I think it's likely that in most cases they work equally well. Maybe someone with more experience with both can say otherwise, but I can't recall ever encountering someone who switched because one was better.