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Comment by snek_case

IMO that's one of the biggest weaknesses of Ruby. The language offers lots of different ways to do the same thing. You can say that makes the language more expressive. Sure, but it also means as a newcomer, there's a lot more language features to learn about. It makes the language less approachable to outsiders.

Python and Ruby occupy similar niches. Python has many more libraries, so people will say, that's why Python has been more successful, but IMO, even if Python and Ruby had as many useful libraries, most people would still choose Python, because it's a simpler and easier to learn language. That may have contributed to Python getting a headstart in the beginning.

I'm sure some people would say that's a case of "worse is better", but I think you also have to have some empathy for other programmers. When collaborating on a programming project, having a project that is easier for others to understand is easier. Having a language with less weirdness, less peculiarities and less complexity is a plus.

parent snek_case 4 years ago

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