3 ms·

Of course they meant 'Python' instead of 'Ruby' but hey ;-) I've made the switch from Ruby to Python, mostly for the scipy/numpy/pandas/jupyter support (and pe

by crusso 10y ago

Of course they meant 'Python' instead of 'Ruby' but hey ;-) I've made the switch from Ruby to Python, mostly for the scipy/numpy/pandas/jupyter support (and performance) - but I don't think I'll ever get away from the feeling with Python that I have to look up how to do things that felt natural in Ruby.

SwellJoe 10y ago
I've gone back and forth between Perl, Python, and Ruby a few times over the past 20 years...that feeling happens every time I switch, for all of them. I generally find "intuitive", and "ease of use", is almost always really just "what I'm used to". That said, Ruby has gotten more difficult to read, for me, over the years. I just did a small-ish project in Ruby for a client, and was surprised at how much new syntax there is. It has become a large language, in the way that Perl is a large language. It took me longer than I expected to wrap my head around new idioms. Python 3 code seems simpler than Python 2. Ruby 2.x code seems more complex than Ruby 1.x. That actually surprised me, because the first time I tried Ruby (way back when DHH released the first "make a blog in 3.4 seconds" or whatever that RoR intro video was) I found it immediately intuitive, moreso than Python, which I was using at work. Anyway, my point is that these are big, old, mature languages, with a lot of weird stuff that's made its way into them. It takes time to master something with such depth. It doesn't necessarily mean the language is worse than a new language that is extremely simple...Ruby, Python, and Perl started out simple (even simplistic); the needs of their users caused them to expand. It takes a real effort, and a willingness to break backward compatibility, to stay simple through decades of development. Python 3 made some of those hard choices and got a little simpler; Ruby and Perl haven't (though Ruby and Perl are still stronger languages than they were when they were "simple"/"easy", whatever). But, I'm also using Python more lately because of the scientific and machine learning stuff, which is a super strong ecosystem.

by crusso 10y ago

SwellJoe 10y ago

I've gone back and forth between Perl, Python, and Ruby a few times over the past 20 years...that feeling happens every time I switch, for all of them. I generally find "intuitive", and "ease of use", is almost always really just "what I'm used to". That said, Ruby has gotten more difficult to read, for me, over the years. I just did a small-ish project in Ruby for a client, and was surprised at how much new syntax there is. It has become a large language, in the way that Perl is a large language. It took me longer than I expected to wrap my head around new idioms. Python 3 code seems simpler than Python 2. Ruby 2.x code seems more complex than Ruby 1.x. That actually surprised me, because the first time I tried Ruby (way back when DHH released the first "make a blog in 3.4 seconds" or whatever that RoR intro video was) I found it immediately intuitive, moreso than Python, which I was using at work. Anyway, my point is that these are big, old, mature languages, with a lot of weird stuff that's made its way into them. It takes time to master something with such depth. It doesn't necessarily mean the language is worse than a new language that is extremely simple...Ruby, Python, and Perl started out simple (even simplistic); the needs of their users caused them to expand. It takes a real effort, and a willingness to break backward compatibility, to stay simple through decades of development. Python 3 made some of those hard choices and got a little simpler; Ruby and Perl haven't (though Ruby and Perl are still stronger languages than they were when they were "simple"/"easy", whatever). But, I'm also using Python more lately because of the scientific and machine learning stuff, which is a super strong ecosystem.