On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 11:56:22 +0900, Thursday
<nospam / nospam.nospam.nospam.nospam.org> wrote:
> Lethalman wrote:
> > (sorry for my poor English)
> > Hello,
> > i'm a pythonist but i like very much some ruby features, however it
> > doesn't seem to be very supported at all like Python.
> > I never programmed in ruby, because i python is more used.
> >
> > I would like to know why ruby doesn't "take the fly" like Python did,
> > because i really would like to try the ruby language!
> >
> > Bye!
> 
> Some might say the same about Microsoft Windows vs Linux.  Rather than
> looking at the current status, look at the trend to see which technoloy
> is enjoying a faster growth rate.
> 
> As I type this, #python has 130 users and #ruby-lang has 185 users (the

That's interesting, but (as you mentioned later) not an accurate
measure. Compare the mailing list posts at Python with that of Ruby.
The picture is _very_ different.

> most I've seen).  About 2-3 months ago, I saw around 190 in #python and
> only 160 in #ruby-lang.  Ruby is seeing constant and continuous increase
> in popularity while Python does not (based solely on the IRC observation).
> 
> I understand that using only IRC channel membership by itself might not
> be accurate but it is something we can measure.  And the trend is clear:
> ruby is growing in popularity while python is not.  So you decide if you
> want to stick with something that has already peaked or if you want to
> go with something that is growing consistently.
> 
> Also keep in mind that Ruby didn't have any English-language books
> before year 2000. It now has around a half-dozen or so and more is
> coming out each year.  The lack of English documentation was the biggest
> (perhaps only) weakness in Ruby.

Exactly. I don't see any other reason why Ruby didn't take off as well
as Python.

> 
> I've heard Ruby is already more popular in Japan than Python--but I
> don't know if that is true because I don't know how the numbers were
> measured.  Again, what is important is the growth trend and not just the
> current status (think MS Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux).
> 
> 


-- 
Premshree Pillai
http://www.livejournal.com/~premshree