3 ms·
I decided to learn it by writing a lexer for it in Lisp. Few pages into the spec I saw its objects are printed #<like this>. I was learning both Lisp and Ruby a
by mahmud 16y ago
I decided to learn it by writing a lexer for it in Lisp. Few pages into the spec I saw its objects are printed #<like this>. I was learning both Lisp and Ruby at the time, so I dismissed it as a Lisp with perl-syntax. That was in 2000 :-)
Never bothered to learn it still.
- steveklabnik 16y agoThe reason I love Ruby is because I do consider it to be 'an acceptable Lisp.' For extra fun, you can write really nice sexps in Ruby by just using arrays with a symbol as the first element... [:puts, [:+, 2, 3]] I wrote a tiny compiler with an IR that did that. Stole the idea from http://www.hokstad.com/compiler http://www.hokstad.com/compiler
- mahmud 16y agoRuby is nice in it's own right, it doesn't need to be an acceptable Lisp or an adequate Smalltalk. If anything, Ruby teaches programmers to enjoy making software. It's awesome to see so much attention going into detail, and improving aesthetics. That's a good attitude to encourage. Plus it's a bloody useful language to know.
- steveklabnik 16y agoWhat I mean is, I love Ruby because I see so much Lisp in it. Lisps are about the only languages more metaprogramming-enabled than Ruby is. And the software engineering dedication certainly doesn't hurt.
- hboon 16y agoSmalltalk?