What is Ruby's biggest strength ?

[Todd Benson]

Ruby can be hard to decipher coming from many other popular languages,
as many use
very similar (to each other) C-like syntax, and Ruby is both different
in important ways and
freer (optional parens, for instance) than most C-like languages. This
isn't an issue of hygiene
("clean" code) so much as it is one of familiar syntax. TMTOWTDI also
means that different
programmer's will express things in the ways most natural to them,
which may not be the
most natural to other readers.

One thing that was hard for me to grasp at first, but now love, is
that Ruby sort of gives you a sense of thinking of an object as a
living thing with it's own personality, including syntax, or "birth"
of the object, if you will. It makes it easy to do the "my object can
interact with yours as long as we can handshake" OO.

Now, for maintenance, I've found that unless the code is intentionally
obfuscated, it's not that hard to go over it regardless of style. Of
course, it's nice to have conventions to keep everyone working on a
project mildly in check.

Todd

 

[s.ross]

Degustibus non est disputandum.

Extra points for translation and source of quote

 

[Robert Dober]

Extra points for translation and source of quote

De gustibus non disputandum est.
The reordering of the words is just reflecting my taste, that's what's
cool in Latin, you can use prefix or sufffix method calls.

"One can not argue about matters of taste" I prefer however "It is
futile to argue about matters of taste" but I always got bad marks in
Latin.

I believe it is not a quote but a proverb ( which might come from a
quote of course), but well I have no idea, I claim only half of the
point.


Cheers
Robert

 

[Tuan Minh]

Thank everybody, indeed!
I always believe Ruby is a good programming language.
But you praise it as beauty, art language..etc, however, why don't you
give some examples to prove those opinion.

 

[Dave Thomas]

But you praise it as beauty, art language..etc, however, why don't you
give some examples to prove those opinion.

Perhaps the onus is now on you to try it and experience these things
for yourself.

Programming is not art in the same way that painting is--you don't
wander down a hall and look at things on the wall. Programming is art
in the sense of craft--you come to appreciate it through doing it.

Enjoy.


Dave

 

[Rick DeNatale]

De gustibus non disputandum est.
The reordering of the words is just reflecting my taste, that's what's
cool in Latin, you can use prefix or sufffix method calls.

"One can not argue about matters of taste" I prefer however "It is
futile to argue about matters of taste" but I always got bad marks in
Latin.

The more idiomatic English translation would be something like,
"There's no accounting for taste!"

As for the source, I'm pretty sure that the identity of whoever first
uttered it is obscured by the sands of time.

 

[Rick DeNatale]

Perhaps the onus is now on you to try it and experience these things
for yourself.

Programming is not art in the same way that painting is--you don't
wander down a hall and look at things on the wall. Programming is art
in the sense of craft--you come to appreciate it through doing it.

Or to extend the analogy, be like the art students I always saw in
museums. Whenever I got the opportunity to roam the halls of the
Louvre or the Prado, I inevitably saw students with easels, not just
looking at the works, but trying to learn from them by
"reimplementing" them in their own way.

 

[David A. Black]

Hi --

Or to extend the analogy, be like the art students I always saw in
museums. Whenever I got the opportunity to roam the halls of the
Louvre or the Prado, I inevitably saw students with easels, not just
looking at the works, but trying to learn from them by
"reimplementing" them in their own way.

Be careful, though, or you'll get accused of "re-inventing the wheel"
I've always thought that it's fine, and often fun, to write
programs that do what others already do. I think of it as more like
being a wheelwright than a re-inventor of the wheel.


David

--
Rails training from David A. Black and Ruby Power and Light:
ADVANCING WITH RAILS April 14-17 New York City
INTRO TO RAILS June 9-12 Berlin
ADVANCING WITH RAILS June 16-19 Berlin
See http://www.rubypal.com for details and updates!

 

[ara.t.howard]

Thank everybody, indeed!
I always believe Ruby is a good programming language.
But you praise it as beauty, art language..etc, however, why don't you
give some examples to prove those opinion.

a really nice piece of code by michael fellinger

http://s3.amazonaws.com/drawohara.com.snippets/global_rb.html

this small dsl (the 'o' method) adds both global configuration options
and command-line options at once.

a little script i use for time tracking written on top of the
main.rb dsl for command-line generation

http://s3.amazonaws.com/drawohara.com.snippets/punch.html

this dsl configures a multi-mode command line program including
sharing of options across sibling modes, casting/parsing of switches,
and automaticaly generates usage globally and per mode

amazingly concise sql generation via sequel

http://s3.amazonaws.com/drawohara.com.snippets/sequel_query_rb.html


beauty is subjective but i think at least one of these is beautiful

kind regards.

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/

 

[Brian Adkins]

...
Or to extend the analogy, be like the art students I always saw in
museums. Whenever I got the opportunity to roam the halls of the
Louvre or the Prado, I inevitably saw students with easels, not just
looking at the works, but trying to learn from them by
"reimplementing" them in their own way.

They let you bring an easel and paint into the Louvre and just start
painting? Cool.

 

[Julian Leviston]

Er.... I agree with you. LoL. Strange response!

Julian.

 

[Tuan Minh]

I'm making a essay about Ruby on Rails.
You can give me some advices how to do it better.
I wrote some topics in Rails but it don't long enough(~50 pages Doc) and
my teacher require essay don't concern about code much.
I wrote about history, MVC, Ruby, Relatation Database,Active
Record,Action Pack... Now, what should I write more?
Thanks

 

[Julian Leviston]

What about Server/Client, request/response, TCP/IP, the web, etc.?
REST? They're the backbones it sits on.

Julian

Learn Ruby on Rails! CHECK OUT THE FREE VIDS (LIMITED TIME) NEW VIDEO
OUT 3rd APRIL
http://sensei.zenunit.com/