----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Weber" <Ephaeton / gmx.net>


> > My feeling is that using C++ with GC and the STL (and C++ strings)
> > would result in considerably fewer C style bugs (stray pointers,
> > buffer overflows, multiple frees, etc.) and faster development.
>
> Agreed. Many people go searching for a new language instead of using
> the provided libraries for a language. That's a good reason to use
> C, scheme, and C++, too. Just because you can do regexp's in Perl,
> and not easily in C++ (without a library) doesn't mean you should
> switch to perl just because it offers regexps. I think that's really
> ridiculous.

Good point, but C++ and Perl can't be reasonably considered to occupy the
same "space".  If you can do your huge system in C++ and parse the text
inputs and outputs with Perl, for instance, that would be reasonable.

> On the other hand ruby overall offers a somewhat more pleasant
> experience to the programmer, given that it doesn't try to be
> downwards compatible to C, and thus is more high level :-)

Agreed.

> (still, I want lisp style macros in ruby ... gotta forge my own, eh? :-)
>
> -Martin

--Gavin