Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint

[Alex Martelli]

Gerrit Holl wrote:

> Hannu Kankaanp?? wrote:
>> Anyway, as a conclusion, I believe you'd be much happier with
>> Ruby than with Python. It doesn't do this weird "statement vs
>> expression" business, it has optional return, it has optional
>> parens with function calls, and probably more of these things
>> "fixed" that you consider Python's downsides. You're trying to
>> make Python into a language that already exists, it seems, but
>> for some reason Pythonistas are happy with Python and not rapidly
>> converting to Ruby or Haskell.
> 
> I wonder to what extent this statement is true. I know at least
> 1 Ruby programmer who came from Python, but this spot check should
> not be trusted, since I know only 1 Ruby programmer and only 1
> former Python programmer <g>. But I have heard that there are a
> lot of former Python programmers in the Ruby community. I think
> it is safe to say that of all languages Python programmers migrate
> to, Ruby is the strongest magnet. OTOH, the migration of this part
> of the Python community to Ruby may have been completed already,
> of course.

Python and Ruby are IMHO very close, thus "compete" for roughly
the same "ecological niche".  I still don't have enough actual
experience in "production" Ruby code to be able to say for sure,
but my impression so far is that -- while no doubt there's a LOT
of things for which they're going to be equally good -- Python's
simplicity and uniformity help with application development for
larger groups of programmers, while Ruby's extreme dynamism and
more variegated style may be strengths for experimentation, or
projects with one, or few and very well-attuned and experienced,
developers.  I keep coming back to Python (e.g. because I have
no gmpy in Ruby for my own pet personal projects...:-) but I do
mean to devote more of my proverbial "copious spare time" to
Ruby explorations (e.g., porting gmpy, otherwise it's unlikely
I'll ever get all that much combinatorial arithmetics done...;-).


Alex