Jim Freeze wrote:

>> 
> I'm curious if you are using a coding standard and if you
> use a test-first coding methodology with UnitTest.
> 
> Has it been easier or harder to use ruby in a multiple
> programmer environment than C or C++?
> 
> Just curious.
> 

The business objects have all been implemented test-first, but the interface 
objects have only been tested by a human at a browser.  Working on this.  
We use Lapidary, which is now Test::Unit to write all of the tests.  We use 
CVS for version control, and this has been much the same process as with 
any language.  It hasn't been at all difficult to use in a multi-programmer 
environment.  On the contrary, it has been very easy to split and 
coordinate tasks between programmers along class, module, and tier lines.  
We start with a UML diagram which is law, implement tests for the objects, 
and develop to those tests.

I should mention that I have never worked on a multi-programmer C/C++ 
program, having only written C programs alone.  Our project was originally 
written on Windows for Visual Foxpro, and it is definitely easier for 
multiple programmers to work on Ruby in a Linux environment.  Compared to 
large projects I have worked on in Perl, with many developers and lots of 
classes, I definitely find the Ruby easier to work with, especially since 
programmers don't tend to find as many different ways to write a Ruby class 
as a Perl programmer might.  Compared to Python I guess I'd say I like Ruby 
slightly better, because the DBI module is easy for people to understand 
and the form of a Ruby program is easy for Perl and Java programmers to 
pick up.

At the time we started the project, we weren't aware of any local Ruby 
programmers, so hired Perl, Java, FoxPro, and C++ programmers instead.  
It's all the same to them.  Now I know there are several Ruby programmers 
in Austin and hopefully some day we'll have the budget to work with them.