On learning Ruby coming from Python ...

I am learning Ruby, and for me coming from Python it's not an as easy as it seems. Ruby is confusing, it has a weird syntax, and for me things in Ruby are not as simple as they're in Python. In Ruby there are some things which seem like dark magic. There's nil, there are gems and bundler. And there's Rails, which isn't Ruby. Ruby is great for so many developers out there, and I am sure you can do amazing things with it. I already know that it's not going to be my weapon of choice, but it's not bad knowing my way around it. I'd like to know how to set up a simple project, read and debug code, install gems and package Ruby projects. I have been ignoring Ruby for too long.

Well, that is a lie. I never ignored it. There many applications that I use, which are written in Ruby, and the language always intrigued me. I met some really cool people working with it, which made me curious about it. But I was afraid of entering a new realm, being incapable again in a programming language is something I am not really fond of, and on the surface the benefits didn't seem that big for me.

Python offers more for me, coming from a background in science and High Performance computing, so I picked it first, when I had to choose a scripting language to automate computational stuff. I didn't reject Ruby, but it didn't offer tools like Matplotlib, SciPy or Pandas. It had Rails, and that is all I knew about Ruby more or less. And unfortunately, that was enough to discourage me from learning it for the last 8 years. Alas, the time for me to learn Ruby has come.

A great catalyst for this is watching the screencasts in destroyallsoftware.com, which often use Ruby. Gary Bernhardt the creator of DAS, sums up nicely packaging in Python and Ruby:

Python tends to have very good fundamentals, but not such good interface on top of them. Whereas Ruby tends to have no as quite thought out fundamental solution, but the interface on it tends to be nicer.

This is a citation from 2011, when pip was still new, and there was no virtualenv-wrapper. Eventually, I think that if your foundations are good, people will build good interfaces.

Installing ruby packages always seemed like magic for me. After watching this screencast, I understand better what is going on when I do gem install .... But I also think that Python does have a simpler and better interface for package installation. It's very UNIX, and it's simpler. There is no bundler, bundler exec, no multiple versions installed of a package installed inside a virtualenv (Ruby allows multiple versions installed side by side).

This is also a trend between the two languages, which I saw early on. Python tends to be simpler where it can. It might not be as fun and magical like Ruby, but it makes the code simpler and the maintenance easier. It is the Zen of Python, where

"There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it."

and readability and simplicity count.

Ruby has some cool tricks, and I think it's OK to use it. However, it will not be my weapon of choice, if can choose Python. Never the less, learning Ruby helps me understand things better in Python. This is either through reflection over stuff that has already become transparent or through rethinking aspects of OOP and Design as are those expressed in Ruby when I compare them to Python. So despite my frustrations with Ruby, it's a fun ride, and I recommend investing sometime in looking into it.