Someone saw Ruby on my resume and wants
to know about it. I gave the two-sentence
blurb, and she wants more.
I’m composing an answer now, but any
assistance is appreciated. I’ll forward
your replies as I deem appropriate.
She describes herself as “only the sales
geek.” Her questions are:
Okay. Please help to fill in the blanks.
I know that Perl is often used by Oracle dbas and
webmasters to provide reporting capabilities and
provide website forms to put info into a database.
Who would benefit most from using Ruby??
As an OO scripting language, how does it fit with
Java and its partner in crime XML?
I guess the question is what does Ruby do and how is
it more beneficial than Perl, Python or Java and to
what group of programmers, dbas, webmasters or ??
I know that Perl is often used by Oracle dbas and
webmasters to provide reporting capabilities and
provide website forms to put info into a database.
Who would benefit most from using Ruby??
Ruby is similar enough to Perl to make it useful in the same domains, but
better enough than Perl to make it more useful. It is often called “a better
Perl than Perl”.
People benefit from Ruby when they want to write proper programs instead of
temporary scripts to solve everyday tasks (among other things).
As an OO scripting language, how does it fit with
Java and its partner in crime XML?
Ruby is more OO than Java. Good: more elegant and powerful programs. Bad:
Ruby does not make the compromises Java makes in order to achieve performance.
Ruby and Java “fit” with XML in the same way: they use libraries to
create/interpret XML documents. Java libraries are probably more advanced.
I guess the question is what does Ruby do and how is
it more beneficial than Perl, Python or Java and to
what group of programmers, dbas, webmasters or ??
Ruby is useful to programmers of all kinds - no exception. In some cases, it
may not be the most suitable language to perform their primary task, but it
is always useful for secondary tasks: development, prototyping, system
administration.
In many cases, it is suitable for the primary tasks as well.
Ruby will very rarely be less suitable than Perl or Python for any task, and
usually much more suitable. Java’s benefit is its proliferation of libraries -
in some domains (talking to SAP, etc.) Ruby can’t compete. Nevertheless, there
are known instances of people writing large and important applications in Ruby.
Summary: it is a very useful language for most common tasks.
I know that Perl is often used by Oracle dbas and
webmasters to provide reporting capabilities and
provide website forms to put info into a database.
Who would benefit most from using Ruby??
Obviously point out that DBAs and Webmasters can do anything in Ruby
that they would have done in Perl. But also stress the maintainability
factor: not only will the person writing the code benefit, but others
who may have to read and modify that person’s code in the future.
As an OO scripting language, how does it fit with
Java and its partner in crime XML?
Hmm. It might still be shaky ground to bring up JRuby (don’t know how
usable that is yet). But you could say that because Ruby is so strongly
object-oriented – more so than any of the other popular scripting
languages – that it’s a very natural transition for Java programmers to
pick up Ruby. Along the same lines, Ruby would be a good choice for
rapid application development or prototyping of systems that might
eventually be implemented in Java.
I guess the question is what does Ruby do and how is
it more beneficial than Perl, Python or Java and to
what group of programmers, dbas, webmasters or ??
Be sure to sum up by assuring her that if one hears it talk, one wants
to only program immediately in Ruby.
Someone saw Ruby on my resume and wants
to know about it. I gave the two-sentence
blurb, and she wants more.
I’m composing an answer now, but any
assistance is appreciated. I’ll forward
your replies as I deem appropriate.
She describes herself as “only the sales
geek.” Her questions are:
Okay. Please help to fill in the blanks.
I know that Perl is often used by Oracle dbas and
webmasters to provide reporting capabilities and
provide website forms to put info into a database.
Who would benefit most from using Ruby??
As an OO scripting language, how does it fit with
Java and its partner in crime XML?
I guess the question is what does Ruby do and how is
it more beneficial than Perl, Python or Java and to
what group of programmers, dbas, webmasters or ??
Release the hounds!
Cheers,
Hal Fulton
This is not real, especially the question came from a Ruby evangalist,
pioneer and book author. In fact, the book ‘The Ruby Way’ should have
a chapter to describe the What and Why of Ruby.
She describes herself as “only the sales
geek.” Her questions are:
Okay. Please help to fill in the blanks.
I know that Perl is often used by Oracle dbas and
webmasters to provide reporting capabilities and
provide website forms to put info into a database.
Who would benefit most from using Ruby??
The poor shmucks who are downstream from the initial programmers. You
know, those poor sods called “maintenance programmers” – those who
inherit the code other people wrote before them.
As an OO scripting language, how does it fit with
Java and its partner in crime XML?
There’s a handful of various libraries available for manipulating
XML data in Ruby. Very much like Java …
I guess the question is what does Ruby do and how is
it more beneficial than Perl, Python or Java and to
what group of programmers, dbas, webmasters or ??
Ruby provides the same “quickness” of implementing features as Perl,
but is less of a write-only language than Perl is, typically.
–
Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy@panoptic.com
Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/
“He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
folly – then you can let go and quickly move on.” (p. 70)
This is not real, especially the question came from a Ruby evangalist,
pioneer and book author. In fact, the book ‘The Ruby Way’ should have
a chapter to describe the What and Why of Ruby.
Yes - shame on you Hal, please stop this poorly camouflaged Ruby propaganda
This is not real, especially the question came from a Ruby evangalist,
pioneer and book author. In fact, the book ‘The Ruby Way’ should have
a chapter to describe the What and Why of Ruby.
Thanks for the kind words, but it’s quite real…
I’m always looking for perspectives other than
my own.
Hal
···
----- Original Message -----
From: “Dat Nguyen” thucdat@hotmail.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby
To: “ruby-talk ML” ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: Recruiter asks about Ruby…
As an OO scripting language, how does it fit with
Java and its partner in crime XML?
Ruby is more OO than Java. Good: more elegant and powerful programs. Bad:
Ruby does not make the compromises Java makes in order to achieve performance.
Ruby and Java “fit” with XML in the same way: they use libraries to
create/interpret XML documents. Java libraries are probably more advanced.
Java actually has a more tight relationship with xml than this. The
java community writes scripting languages in xml to get around java’s
cumbersome qualities. See Ant for an example.
Thanks for the kind words, but it’s quite real…
I’m always looking for perspectives other than
my own.
If only you had digitally signed the original post we could be sure
you’re the real Hal. But now I’m filled with doubts that you’re one of
those scam artists who pretends to be a Ruby evangelist and then asks
for help on questions about his resume. It is still a “niche” fraud, but
one I’m hearing more and more about every day.
