use Perl

• Ruby does have some advantages. (Score:1)

  by gdey (8475)

  The fact that Ruby has a true object model, with true data encapsulation is one major advantage over Perl. I think would and does cause problems, especially if you are not aware of it. I had a hell of a time have to re-implement (and probably doing it wrong) proper class level data encapsulation. Of course there is moose and other object frameworks that do this, but that the major stumbling block, that the native(naive) object system that everyone starts our learning and using does not do this by default.
  • Re:Ruby does have some advantages. (Score:1)

    by chromatic (983) on 2008.02.27 2:09 (#61362) Homepage Journal

    I agree. There's just one reason Perl 6 is so much nicer to use (even now in its unfinished state) than Perl 5.

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    • Re: (Score:1)

      by pdcawley (485)

      Having bitched about Perl's object model, I confess that I still have a sneaking regard for it. Its very simplicity enables the cunning implementor to experiment with almost any meta object protocol they like.
      
      In a sense, Perl 5 the language doesn't provide much more than Smalltalk the language does (smalltalk message dispatch boils down to 'tell the target object to handle this message with these arguments; it's down to the target object to decide what to do with it'), but Smalltalk the environment/library
      • Re: (Score:1)

        by chromatic (983)

        What seems to be exciting the likes of Ola is that it's so much more capable than, say, Java's object system and, out of the box at least, gives you nicer objects than you get from unadorned Perl 5.

        That's completely true, and I have no objection.

        I do expect, however, people who make language comparisons to have used all of the languages they compare. It doesn't suffice to port Java's "Hello, world!" to a new language and then write about how it's impossible to do things in the new language that you d
        • Re: (Score:1)

          by pdcawley (485)

          Do want to send me a cannon I can fire Ola out of next time we're at the same conference?
          • Re: (Score:1)

            by chromatic (983)

            We've met actually. Ward Cunningham introduced us. My mind boggles sometimes.
        • Re: (Score:2)

          by pudge (1)

          Still, we've all known for a long time that I'm an unreasonable man.

          Just like Ralph Nader [wikipedia.org]! (BTW, I quite enjoyed that movie. I've always admired Nader even when I thought he was full of it, because he desires what he thinks is good for everyone, and he has principles, and actually acts on them. Imagine that. If this is at the core of being unreasonable, then we need more unreasonable people.)