On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 5:55 PM,  <adaworks / sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
<snip>
>  Ruby will most certainly evolve.   The language seems to be designed so it
>  can evolve.   What will be necessary, to ensure that the evolution of Ruby
>  is not haphazard and self-limiting, is careful analysis of each new change.
>  One of the more important changes that Ruby needs is a better model of
>  "design-by-contract."
That is a point of particular interest, myself being a complete
ignorant of the concept, I would highly appreciate if you could kindly
either elaborate on this a little bit or giving some pointers or both,
if you insist ;).
>     I am not a Ruby expert, so I do not presume to
>  know what changes are most appropriate, but for design of large-scale
>  software such as that targeted by Ada, I think there could be some structural
>  and architectural improvements in Ruby.
>
>  Also, a newer language, named SCALA, has some design features that make
>  it very interesting.  Other language designs, during future evolutionary steps,
>  could learn from the design of SCALA.   As I look at SCALA and Ruby,
>  I see the potential for Ruby learning from SCALA.

>
>  Most important, when a language is not designed to evolve, or is designed so
>  it cannot evolve, that language is guaranteed to fall into disuse over time and
>  even become inappropriate for its intended niche.
I guess that will happen anyway but it can happen much later if a
language evolves into the right direction, on a strict term this is
indicated by the definition of evolution itself.
>
>  Richard Riehle
>
Cheers
Robert

-- 
http://ruby-smalltalk.blogspot.com/

---
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
Ludwig Wittgenstein