Python vs Ruby

[Bryan]

Amol Vaidya wrote:
> Hi. I am interested in learning a new programming language, and have been 
> debating whether to learn Ruby or Python. How do these compare and contrast 
> with one another, and what advantages does one language provide over the 
> other? I would like to consider as many opinions as I can on this matter 
> before I start studying either language in depth. Any help/comments are 
> greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help. 
> 
> 

why don't you do what i did?  download ruby and spend a day or two reading 
"programming ruby" from www.ruby-lang.org/en.  the download python and spend a 
day or two reading the python tuturial from www.python.org.  they are very 
similar languages and it's going to come down to your personal perference.  for 
me personally, ruby did not fit in my brain and python did.  i used the "how 
many times did i have to flip back to a previous page in the manual/tutorial and 
reread a section" test.  with ruby, once i got about one third of the way 
through the manual, i had to constantly reread previous sections.  with python, 
not once did i need to reread a previous section.  therefore, python was the 
obvious choice for me.


bryan