Noel Rappin Writes Here

I posted a version of this to JJ Behrens’ Blog post about Ruby, and decided it was probably worth also posting here.

I use and like both Ruby and Python, here’s why…

Things I like about Ruby with respect to Python

1. I think Ruby is the only language that gets accessors right. The thing you want to do 95% of the time – simple access – is trivial, and the thing you want to do 5% – something fancy in your accessor – of the time is a pretty easy override. Plus, it’s nicely encapsulated, and you never have to wonder if that thing in another class is accessed directly or via a method.

2. Blocks. I find that my kind of functional style flows pretty easily in Ruby. It’s also not hard to pass named functions. When I first started with Ruby, it used to bother me that you couldn’t tell from a method signature if it took a block, but I’ve since managed to deal.

3. Being able to add method to existing classes. Although I know this really bugs some people, sometimes adding a method to String cleans up the code significantly.

4. Expression-based syntax. The implicit return in Python always causes me at least one error per sessions. Plus I like writing a ternary operator as an actual if statement.

Things I like about Python with respect to Ruby

1. Consistency. Python enforces it. As a result, my Python code is more likely to be readable by me six months later. Ruby tends to be more concise, but some parts of Ruby are still a little too Perlish…

2. Real keyword arguments (coming to Ruby soon). The Ruby syntax magic of gathering up map pairs into a hash is sort of annoying.

3. I find Python’s multiple inheritance mechanism to be easier to understand then the Ruby package/module setup. It always seems like I’m messing up the difference between ‘require’ and ‘include’…

4. On balance, I prefer Python immutable strings to Ruby’s mutable string/symbol split.