On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 11:56:17 +0900, Hal Fulton <hal9000 / hypermetrics.com> wrote:
> Joe Van Dyk wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm trying to get Ruby added to one of the "supported" OSS tools at Boeing.
> >
> > I was asked this question:  "The question is, is Ruby bringing
> > something extra to the table, that we can't do with Perl, Python, Tcl,
> > Guile?  E.g., are there OSS packages that we want to use which need
> > Ruby?"
> >
> > I mentioned Rails and DRb as being the most useful applications of
> > Ruby to me.  But can someone help me out with more?
> 
> On the one hand, all Turing-complete languages are equivalent.
> 
> In a more practical vein, sometimes there are libraries/packages
> with which you need to interface, making some language a more
> natural choice than others.
> 
> Neither of these points sells Ruby. What sells Ruby is the
> productivity that programmers have when they use it.
> 
> This is only my opinion: I don't consider Perl as being on a level
> with Ruby in this respect, and Tcl is not even close. Python, I
> think, is very similar to Ruby in terms of productivity. I am not
> familiar with Guile.
> 
> In case it helps any, you can refer to my article on devsource.com --
> it was written partly to sell the idea that Ruby is now mainstream.

To save you the search: 
http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1759,1778695,00.asp

I'll 2nd Hal's comment, it's the ease of use, and more importantly
"readability" that sold me.  Having done quite a bit of perl in the
past, I love Ruby's clean look and the fact that I can read code that
I haven't looked at for a month or more (especially since I only use
it occassionally).

-- 
Bill Guindon (aka aGorilla)