3 ms·

While I find Ruby to be nice overall, you're wrong on several points: - Whether or not Python was historically OO or not, everything in Python is now an object

by lucian1900 14y ago

While I find Ruby to be nice overall, you're wrong on several points: - Whether or not Python was historically OO or not, everything in Python is now an object. Its love for protocols drives design like `str(foo)` (which calls `foo.__str__()`), not any particular deficiency in its object system - Python's lambdas are indeed limited, but one can easily use `def` and just name the function. Functions are first class, after all - Metaprogramming facilities are very similar in power. Neither language has macros. - Python tends insist on not duplicating things (i.e. both indentation and braces/end) and on not being ambiguous. There is another reason Python can't omit braces for function calls: without braces, they are references to the function. As a consequence, Python doesn't need things like .call() Overall, I haven't seen one language or the other to be more powerful.

wilmoore 14y ago
Personally, I find that Python and Ruby are comparable as it relates to utility. I'd think it is fair to say that argument is a wash. It is Ruby's expressiveness that makes it my choice before Python: --- Ruby --- letters = ['a', 'b', 'c'] letters.map &:capitalize --- Python --- letters = ['a', 'b', 'c'] capitalize = lambda x: x.capitalize() map(capitalize, letters) --- PHP --- <?php $letters = ['a', 'b', 'c']; array_map('strtoupper', $letters); Of course, this is one example where PHP (5.4+) at least somewhat resembles Python. I think that is why some of the more experienced PHP developers tend to choose to go with Python as their PHP recovery language. Personally, I prefer "letters.map" (Ruby) over "map(...)" and "array_map(...)"; however, that is a personal style preference and has nothing to do with technical merit. And I still enjoy writing Python here and there. PHP is also still a necessity much of the time. That being said, there are a few edge cases that I've witnessed where Python actually reads better than Ruby; though, these cases are few.
- kami8845 14y ago
  idiomatic python would be chars = 'abc' [c.upper() for c in chars]
  - wilmoore 14y ago
    Fair enough :)

wilmoore 14y ago

Personally, I find that Python and Ruby are comparable as it relates to utility. I'd think it is fair to say that argument is a wash. It is Ruby's expressiveness that makes it my choice before Python: --- Ruby --- letters = ['a', 'b', 'c'] letters.map &:capitalize --- Python --- letters = ['a', 'b', 'c'] capitalize = lambda x: x.capitalize() map(capitalize, letters) --- PHP --- <?php $letters = ['a', 'b', 'c']; array_map('strtoupper', $letters); Of course, this is one example where PHP (5.4+) at least somewhat resembles Python. I think that is why some of the more experienced PHP developers tend to choose to go with Python as their PHP recovery language. Personally, I prefer "letters.map" (Ruby) over "map(...)" and "array_map(...)"; however, that is a personal style preference and has nothing to do with technical merit. And I still enjoy writing Python here and there. PHP is also still a necessity much of the time. That being said, there are a few edge cases that I've witnessed where Python actually reads better than Ruby; though, these cases are few.

kami8845 14y ago
idiomatic python would be chars = 'abc' [c.upper() for c in chars]
- wilmoore 14y ago
  Fair enough :)