Jean-Claude Arbaut graced us by uttering:
> Ok I use Ruby for rather simple tasks... I use Awk very often
> for text "formating", and I use Python to embed C routines. I
> plan to use Ruby to replace both.

Sounds like a good tactic to me! :)

> but I must say that for me Perl is almost unusable, whereas
> Ruby is perfect ! [...] And I insist, for me it's not simply a
> joke to say perl is too complicated. I tried to learn, and I
> don't think I'm too stupid or too lazy.

I'm sure you're not.  One of the greatest mistakes I ever made
was to try to learn Perl as a variation on any programming
language I'd ever known.  It took months of struggling, as well
as a 3 month sabbatical during which I just had to let Perl
knowledge rot, ferment, and (finally) distill into the resultant
epiphany... and I don't regret a day.

That's just what it took for me.  YMMV.

> If you remember TECO, you will have a good basis for comparison
> ;-)

Smiley noted, but to compare Perl to TECO and thus, indirectly,
to Emacs, is to place Ruby on the other side of the Holy War with
vi.  And I don't like to be far away from vi, no matter which
langauge I program in!  :)

Cheers!
Tim Hammerquist
-- 
As a computer, I find your faith in technology amusing.