In article <20021211222925.B84560 / freeze.org>,
Jim Freeze  <jim / freeze.org> wrote:
>On Thursday, 12 December 2002 at 12:03:52 +0900, Phil Tomson wrote:
>> In article <20021211184131.A84073 / freeze.org>,
>> Jim Freeze  <jim / freeze.org> wrote:
>> >On Thursday, 12 December 2002 at  7:42:00 +0900, Shannon Fang wrote:
>> > 
>> >I have given two presentations on Ruby at my work. It was received much
>> >better than I anticipated. 
>> 
>> However just to show that YMMV: I gave a presentation on Ruby to my group 
>> at the same company that Jim works at (different location) about 1.5 years 
>> ago and it was NOT received well.
> 
> And it had nothing to do with Phil's abilities, no matter what he says. :)

Well, yeah, your presentation might have been a lot better ;-)  You 
probably used PowerPoint for your presentation, I used HTML so that would 
have made a difference  ;-)  (actually, the sad truth is that some of the 
folks I gave my Ruby presentation to did complain that it wasn't done in 
PowerPoint - "PowerPoint is the company standard for presentations!" )

> Seriously, I think Phil was up against the pointy haired manager that 
> wanted to get promoted. Very scary...

A PowerPointy Haired Manager ;-)

>
>> >I used to get "Only you know Ruby", to
>> >which I would respond, "Any programmer here after 2 days will know
>> >Ruby better than they currently know Perl". 
>> 
>> I think this is really true.  That's certainly how I recall feeling after 
>> moving from Perl to Ruby (more comfortable in Ruby after a couple of 
>> days).
> 
>Well it doesn't help perl when I can say that I have programmed in perl
>for 5 years, and now that I have switched to ruby 2 yrs ago, I can
>hardly remember anything about perl. 

I have exactly the same experience (well, it was six years of Perl for me) 
- I don't want to remember the pain... you can't make me!!

Actually, I've signed up to do a Ruby presentation that the Portland Perl 
Monger's meeting next month so I'm gonna have to remember some Perl to 
show them some comparison examples.  (BTW: They're pretty receptive to 
Ruby over there at the Portland Perl Mongers - invade your local Perl 
Monger's meetings!)

>It's like when you have a bad
>experience and your mind blocks it from your memory. Man, I wonder if
>someone in the future undergoing hypnosis could suffer severe 
>psychological trauma if they uncovered their old perl memories? ;)

Repressed memory syndrome...

>
>Tis true of perl: When I wrote the code, only myself and God knew
> what it said. Now (1 week later) only God knows.

;-)

Phil
-- 
"Or perhaps the truth is less interesting than the facts?" 
Amy Weiss (accusing theregister.co.uk of engaging in 'tabloid journalism')
Senior VP, Communications
Recording Industry Association of America