Ruby for Newbie?!

[Ron Stephens]

Well, I also was seduced by Ruby. It is an attractive language.


But I came back  to Python. I do not think Ruby equivalents to all of 
the tools you list exist yet. Ruby is newer, less well established, and 
with a smaller user base than Python. While I would never say anything 
bad about Ruby, here are some reasons why I came running back to Python.

1. More and better tools. For instance, I don't beleive there are any 
Ruby equivalents for the many Pythonic gui-painters (Boa, Pythware, 
Black Adder etc) I chose Black Adder, but Boa is nice and free..

2. More mature library set for Python

3. While Ruby's object orieinted make up is very attractive in its 
consistency and polish, upon closer contemplation, Python's structurer 
seems to me to be more practical, elegant, and efficient. Your mileage 
may vary...

4. Ruby is extremely immature on Windows. This is the closest I will 
come to a negative statement. Investigate for yourself, but there may be 
dragons hiding herein.

5. Python is generally more widely ported. In my case, really good ports 
of Python to PDA's such as the new Sharp Zaurus are of great interest.

6. Active Python communities exist for many of the ports, including the 
newer ones.

7. The Python community is incomaparable. Hey, I like the Ruby community 
and have coresponded with some of them and occasianally get involved in 
thrreads on comp.lang.ruby...but the Python communnity is incomparable.

8. Python is better documented, although Ruby is improving in this area, 
but the 25+ excellent Pythonic online tutorials alone constitute a 
priceless resource.

9. On balance, Python is more fun, more effective, and my choice.

10. Have fun no mattter your choice! ;-))))

Ron Stephens
Python City http://www.awaretek.com