Other Software > Developer's Corner
Python vs. Ruby -- what's your take?
Rover:
I have the books, I have the project, I don't have the time... but I need to do something.
I've been trying to start a project for a few months... pretty simple web-based db type application. I will be creating the first application/database that will be built upon and used for many things in the future. I will be using Apache, MySQL and Linux. I own the server.
So what do I want to learn, Ruby or Python? Here are my basic thoughts... I'm interested in yours as well.
Python good: Looks neat; I'd use Plone as a CMS to get started. Lots of development.
Python bad: Whitespace sensative! Which freaking version? I need Zope for Plone, but I can't use the latest because CentOS needs an older Python for yum, etc. The new version of Python breaks the older stuff. wtf? no compatability?
Ruby good: Looks neat, lots of momentum... rising in the top used languages a lot. Has Rails framework.
Ruby bad: OOP to the max. Uses a lot of characters in language @ =>. Non-strict rules for formatting method calls (can be puts ("some stuff") or puts "some stuff")
Thoughts anyone?
housetier:
make it a poll and I'll vote for python...
But actually you should try both to some extent, and then decide which one suits you better. *I* would go with python as far as possible. But let's not forget that the Ruby folks have had some neat ideas in the past.
I expressedly do not want to "diss" any language, but I just like python best!
Bitwise:
Ruby is one of the two most interesting of the 'emerging' languages at the moment (the other one being D). Its OOP is pretty straightforward and apart from a few exceptions to the rule (e.g. Blocks/Closures aren't objects), it is a very 'pure' form of OOP. Which in my view is good. I mean, I'm happy with OOP, I'm happy with procedural - not so keen on the 'mix-and-match' approach... 8)
Bear in mind though that the Rails integration with Apache is awkward - and is one of the reasons why very few web hosts currently support Rails.
best wishes
Huw
mouser:
Ruby on Rails is getting a lot of attention (http://www.rubyonrails.org/) -
it's a pretty full and powerful framework for implementing web-based online services (shopping carts, etc.), and quite impressive.
From what i can see Ruby use seems to be moving towards web development, while Python use is moving towards client development (wxpython is getting some real attenion as a GUI toolkit [though there is also wxruby]).
I've done some python coding. It's ok, though I didn't find it anything special and I am not happy with the significant whitespace stuff.
Ruby likewise seems ok to me, but doesn't blow me away. It does seem to get a bit more respect from the language mavens, but i'm not much of a scripting-language guy so I always find myself turned off by non-static typing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_typing).
mouser:
btw, let me point out that the self-teaching programming school assignments have sections for Ruby, Python, PHP, and more:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=77.0
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