Stefan Lang wrote: >> >>>Mark Volkmann ha scritto: >>> >> >>And what is the practical implication of this? > > > For the newbie: one language concept fewer to learn. > Read Daniel Brockman's post for more. It's a quite good post, too. Very illuminating. And it suggests a reason why Ruby is good candidate for a starter language. Ruby has a small set of basic design principals. Their interaction may lead to complex behavior, but Ruby is not inherently complicated. The exceptions to the basic principals are few. So, when learning the language, one need keep track of only a handful of special cases; most behavior can be reasonably deduced. Put another way, if there is complexity in Ruby, it is emergent, and one can pretty much avoid it until one needs it; in a language such as Java, it is intrinsic, and in your face. James -- http://www.ruby-doc.org - The Ruby Documentation Site http://www.rubyxml.com - News, Articles, and Listings for Ruby & XML http://www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff http://www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys