An Ode To My Two Loves

[Jamey Cribbs]

At the risk of calling my manhood into question, I humbly submit the 
following little diddy (which is a blatant rip-off of a heart wrenching 
melody of the '70s by that international superstar, Mary Macgregor):

    To the tune of "Torn Between Two Lovers":

        Torn between two languages, both of which are awesome tools
        Lovin' both of you is breakin' all the rules
        Torn between two incredibly awesome scripting languages, I'm 
startin' to drool
        Using you both is breakin' all the rules


Is freedom of choice wonderful or a curse?  I do a lot of scripting at 
my day job.  Through the years, I've gone through what will probably 
seem a somewhat familiar progression of scripting languages.  Started 
out with Tcl, moved to Perl when I began to do some serious text 
munging, moved back to Tcl/Tk when I needed to do some gui stuff, jumped 
to Python as I began to learn object oriented programming, told Python I 
needed more space and moved in with Ruby when I needed to do more gui 
stuff and wanted to use FXRuby.

And that's where I stand now, Torn Between Two Scripting Languages.  
Python and Ruby are both so damn attractive that I can't commit to one 
of them.  I don't want to settle down into a monogamous programming 
relationship.  I mean, if you have Grace Kelly on one arm and Maureen 
O'Hara on the other (I'm old school), should you really have to give one 
of them up?

Why can't my boss understand this?  But no, he has to lecture me about 
the dangers of "foolin' around" with too many languages.  "Oh sure", he 
says, "you're having fun now juggling two beautiful languages in the 
air.  But how long can you keep living two lives?  Sooner or later you 
are going to slip up and make a mistake.  My god, man, what if you start 
leaving off the 'end' in your if statements?  What if you forget that 
indentation DOES matter?!  For the love of all that is sacred and holy, 
think of the programs!"

My boss was always a little melodramatic.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm typing this up.  I just finished a major 
update to KirbyBase and I think I'm a little punch drunk.  I have been 
spending a lot of time with Ruby lately and working on KirbyBase caused 
me to dive back into Python.  Why do these two languages have to be so 
freakin' good!  I know a lot of people see big differences in the 
languages, but I'm not one of them.  I don't think I am a smart enough 
programmer to understand or ever be bothered by some of the more subtle 
or deeper differences that some people have pointed out.  Ah, ignorance 
is bliss.

Well, as long as I can keep my boss from finding out that I am in this 
programming love triangle, I think I will probably stay happily enmeshed 
in my little soap opera.

Well, I think I will go now and listen to my Captain & Tenille 
records...why are you looking at me like that.  I'm a happily married 
man with four kids.  I like football and guns...really, I do!

Under the influence of some kind of strange force and will probably be 
embarrassed when he snaps out of it,

Jamey Cribbs