[Techtalk] Ruby/Perl Tutorials

[Wim De Smet]

Hi,

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 2:49 PM, Bethany Seeger <seeger at prosensing.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the recommendations. (just read a page of the Why's guide and
> it's very amusing...)
>
> 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?
>
> Perl vs. Python vs. Ruby...

I think what matters a lot is also what people in your field are
using. I do some scientific stuff and you can usually use python
(though perl is still very popular as well). Ruby isn't very popular,
I think to do with the ruby VM having a reputation for being somewhat
slow (not an issue when coding websites, but somewhat if you wanna
crunch some numbers). Python has nice C bindings for when you need
them for that kind of stuff, which can be handy. Though I've never
seen a problem that I couldn't do in java or the like, since usually
the limiting factor for me is memory, not cpu.

> 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.

IMHO you've been a bit sheltered from the more advanced features in
Ruby and a bit overexposed to the more gnarly features in perl. I find
perl slightly harder to read, but on all both are pretty much as
simple or as complicated as you want them to be. I had more trouble
picking up ruby than perl actually, but only because I'm too used to
oop and imperative languages. I think people with a lisp background
would prefer ruby.

Just my 2c,
Wim