What do you think about Ruby ?

Gary Fisher gafisher at sprynet.com
Sun Aug 7 11:47:39 UTC 2005


>> "What do you want to be, a researcher or a bread earner?"

Smalltalk offers one the ability to be a chef, not only making one's own
bread but creating new dishes for others as well.  Smalltalk is not a mere
language, it's not just a tool; it's a paradigm.  As such, children (or at
least those with a child's ability to grasp new paradigms) are the most
likely candidates to learn and truly master Smalltalk.  "Big Corporations"
haven't widely embraced Smalltalk because corporations are by nature (and to
some extent by design) the very opposite of children -- the description of
an ideal corporation would make Jack a very dull boy indeed
(http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/allworkandno.html).  The pinnacle of human
aspiration ought not to be retiring from a stable job at a Big Corporation,
though that might be a nice side effect.

Sorry for the rant; to return to the original question, I'd suggest
Smalltalk is to Ruby as a violin is to a zither.  A bit more work buys one a
lot more music, but if you promised to play at your sister's wedding next
month you may want to put your Jascha Heifetz dreams on the back burner for
now.  <g>

Gary



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dat T Nguyen" <thucdat at hotmail.com>
To: "'The general-purpose Squeak developers list'"
<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 12:39 PM
Subject: RE: What do you think about Ruby ?


Compare Ruby with Perl, Python, Lua, Java, C# etc. is more appropriate.
Smalltalk is unique since it is an IDE with its own language.

Every language has its own merit; Ruby, Perl, Python, Lua, etc.
experience a boom in the last decade. They can be used to solve small
and big things while Smalltalk is more for big apps. Some creators of
Smalltalk made a mistake in promoting Smalltalk as a tool for kids to
explore OOP; the latest book on Squeak reflects this fact and ignores
the commercial aspect of a development tool.

Even the name Smalltalk is ridiculous; it's not serious for big
corporation to endorse a small kids-tool for big business apps. Java and
C# achieved the popularity in a few years while Smalltalk had a head
start of 30 years and still has a very minor community.

Smalltalk veterans like Kent Beck and Eric Clayberg are swinging over
Java/Eclipse. A few Japanese technologists are contributing to
Smalltalk; but many other Japanese software gurus are overcrowded on
Ruby forum. Smalltalk is no doubt a pioneer.

A job search on Monster.com for Smalltalk yields a few lines, while Java
and C# would show pages. What do you want to be, a researcher or a bread
earner? HP allegedly let Alan Kay go recently; there is a time for
research and a time for business.

My 2 cents,
Dat

-----Original Message-----
From: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org
[mailto:squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of
Damien Cassou
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 5:50 PM
To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
Subject: What do you think about Ruby ?

Ruby   is  a  programming   language  which   seduce  more   and  more
developpers. It seems that the main programmer of Ruby was a Smalltalk
developper before and has tried to enhance Smalltalk.

However,  some Smalltalk  developers told  me  that ruby  has lots  of
design problems.

What do you think about Ruby ? Is it better ? Any advantages/drawbacks
with Smalltalk ?


Thank you

-- 
Damien Cassou
  pour le Software Composition Group a Berne




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