[Techtalk] Ruby/Perl Tutorials

[Daniel Pittman]

Bethany Seeger <seeger at prosensing.com> writes:

> Thanks for the recommendations. (just read a page of the Why's guide and
> it's very amusing...)

I liked it a great deal.  Why writes well, and the technical side is also
fairly sound.

> What I've had a hard time figuring out is what scripting language is it
> valuable to learn?  Esp if you mostly program in a compiled language but
> sometimes what a script to manipulate data, or just perform some minor
> function.   What looks good on a resume?

For what it is worth, when it comes to hiring any of those scripting languages
alongside a compiled language background looks good to me.  It shows that you
have been willing to look beyond the one style.

> Perl vs. Python vs. Ruby...

Any of them.  Ruby and the new hotness, vs Perl and CPAN, vs Python and style,
all have their strengths, weaknesses, and ... well, save for a few jobs that
are specific to it, none really seem much better than the others to me.

> I've used Ruby for some minor utilities I've needed, but only because I
> wanted to learn the language some.  I realize Ruby (on rails) is being used
> in website development, but I haven't touched that yet.
>
> I realize Perl is older and way more complicated.  Maybe over kill for most
> things I want to do.  Or at least not a very good choice.

I would tend to disagree, but may be biased: I mostly work in Perl. ;)

Perl isn't terribly much more complicated than the other languages (or that
much older, really), though it has some quirks that are more visible than the
quirks in the other languages.[1]

Anyway, of those three I wouldn't recommend any over the others much: they are
all essentially the same language, and once you know one the other two are
pretty easy to pick up, because they are all more similar than they are
different.

Regards,
        Daniel

Footnotes: 
[1]  I think this is partly because the quirks of the other languages,
     especially Ruby, come from their being a bit less mature in some of the
     non-language areas like software packaging and distribution.

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