Ruby Impressions

[Russell E. Owen]

>Regarding the second, my fingers type self. pretty quickly these
>days.  And I'm not limited by my typing speed.

The problem with self, for me (a problem Ruby does not share) is that 
you have to list it as a specific method argument when coding the 
method, then NOT specify it when calling the method. The lack of 
congruence is very nonintuitive to me and is one of the more significant 
sources of errors in my code. In other words, I wish it were a keyword, 
not an argument. I know why it was done, but I still think it is ugly.

As to using a symbol vs "self" in the body of code, I'll bet most folks 
quickly get used to either idiom.

-- Russell

(A Python and Smalltalk fan who realizes all langauges have quirks and 
ugly areas and is glad to have choices)