Waffling between Python and Ruby

[Justin Sheehy]

"Warren Postma" <embed at NOSPAM.geocities.com> writes:

> After using Python seriously for 6 months, I must confess I still
> dislike the "whitespace as syntax". 

This can in part be considered a matter of taste, but...

> Having something look correct on the screen, but not work because of
> misuse of tabs versus spaces, or incorrect indentation, is something
> that still continues to bug me.

What do you use to write your code?  This is not a problem when using
any decent editor that I know of.  The "whitespace issue" is what kept
me from trying Python for a couple of years, but once I started really
using it (and in a decent programmer's editor) I have never found it
to be an issue.

No need to get started on this again, though, if you simply don't like
the look of it.

> 2. Python uses ":" to introduce a new scope, something I find extraneous

Yes, it is extraneous to the parser.  It is there to aid readability,
which some people have found it to do.  Some people here have posted
code to make some editors automatically insert ':' at appropriate spots.

> Ruby is a great language. If I had to make it even, by criticizing something
> in Ruby [snip]

If I were to do so, I would criticize the aggressiveness and
spamminess with which the proponents of Ruby have tried to market it
as 'A better X than X' for all X and sending frequent off-topic
evangelical posts to non-Ruby mailing lists.  This is in fact one of
the biggest things keeping me from looking seriously at Ruby.  Its
evangelists are offensively aggressive at times, enough so to make me
not want to be part of the Ruby community.

-Justin