Ruby vs. Python? [no, Ruby vs. Ruby ]
February 23rd, 2006
In fact this is not a Ruby vs. Python list. I know not enought Ruby and I love Python to much :). It’s more a picture of the first impressions I had on Ruby after I seriously began studying it.
This is a quick list of thoughts. I’m probably adding more stuff later. In fact I’m reaaly amazed. Ruby is really hackish, but it’s also neat and clean. It may sound strange… but I’m afraid I’m gonna love ruby more than Python: it addresses many of the things I come to dislike in Python.
Some stuff I like
- Adding dynamically stuff to classes. The syntax is clean and obvious
class MyClass def aMethod puts "Called aMethod" end end m = MyClass.new begin m.aMethod2 rescue NoMethodError => ex puts "Failed to call #{ex}" end class MyClass def aMethod2 puts "Called aMethod2" end end m.aMethod2In Python for example it is not that clean. The ruby code looks more like ObjectiveC categories (even if in fact you don’t specify a category, of course, since ruby does not need categories).
- private, protected, public modifiers. Being dynamic they do not limit me in any way (if I need I can dynamically change this)
class MyClass protected def aMethod puts "Called aMethod" end end m = MyClass.new begin m.aMethod rescue NoMethodError => ex puts "Failed to call #{ex}" end class MyClass public :aMethod end m.aMethodMoreover I can’t think to a cleaner syntax to do this. Of course one can argue that they aren’t really necessary. Of course, but if you want they do give you a little bit of control, but they don’t limit you in any way.
- Object#freeze: if you suspect that some unknown portion of code is setting a variable to a bogus value, try freezing the variable. The culprit will then be caught during the attempt to modify the variable.
- I love postfixed control clauses. In fact if used with moderation they can augment code readbility (and of course if abused they make it less readable). However, it is pretty logigal to say do_something if something_else. In fact since ruby has blocks it is ok also to write
begin # some stuff end if conditionmaybe not everyone agrees
- Accessors are great. Using attr and similar constructs is great. I also find quite more readable to “assign” with foo= than using more Javesque setFoo(val). In fact properties in Python work in a similar fashion, even if maybe a bit more verbose (however, I think they make it clearer how to document code, but this is a ruby aspect I’ve not yet exploited)
- Gems: I think python needs something like that. Pimp is not that good, in my opinion, of course.
Stuff I don’t know if I like or not
- Not having to write parentheses with no-argument methods. I’ve not yet discovered if I like it or not.
- All the $_… They are used a lot in Perl. I like it, but I’m afraid it can mess things up.
Stuff I dislike
- I don’t like passing strings to require. In fact it can have advantages, but I prefer the pythonic import foo to require “foo”.
- The try catch semantic of try/catch, makes me think to some kind of disguised goto. I’m sure I’m wrong… but
- I’d like to have something like Perl use strict;. It’s something I miss in Python (even if with pychecker you can just live without it). Now I’ve got to find some kind of “use strict” or “rubycheck”.
- Assignment is an expression. This directly leads to code like
a = true b = false print b if b=a
and we imagine the programmer wanted to write
a = true b = false print b if b==a
However in Ruby almost everything is an expression, and it has quite a lot of advantages. So we have to tolerate the “=” for “==” problem.
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