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Next Language, Python or Ruby
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:28 am
by psurrena
I done a good bit of development in PHP over the last two years and, surprisingly, really enjoy it. I'm a designer and the concept, at first, was out there. I later found the concepts were the same, just abstracted.
To get a better understanding of PHP I thought I should start learning another language. Maybe a concept I don't get in PHP, I would in another language. In addition, I just enjoy learning these things.
I'm not so interested in frameworks (ROR, Django), I'd rather get a solid foundation right now. So that aside what would people here recommend as the next step? Python or Ruby?
Thanks in advance.
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:31 am
by feyd
Personally, I'd say Python, but both have their merits. You could easily look at the foundations of both in a week and decide later.

Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:41 am
by psurrena
Is it true that you can write Python apps for almost any platform (web, home computer, phone, gadget)? Same for Ruby?
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:55 am
by onion2k
You can run Python and Ruby on any platform that there's a Python or Ruby interpreter. Same as PHP.
In order to improve your PHP you should really carry on with PHP rather than trying to learn a completely different way of doing things. Both Python and Ruby are very strongly object oriented - you're not going to be able to use what you get from those languages in a PHP script because PHP's object orientation is a bit weak in comparison. That said, of the two options I'd recommend Python, it's a more useful language. There are some incredible libraries available. Beautiful Soup for example.
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:09 am
by Luke
I love python.

I agree with onion about PHP compared to python and ruby, but I disagree that you should stick with just PHP. Learning python has made me a better PHP programmer. I have not done much with Ruby but it looks pretty solid. Syntactically I think they're pretty similar. Django is pretty neato also.
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:17 am
by psurrena
Thanks everyone, I will start looking at Python in the near future.
Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 11:08 am
by psurrena
One more question, can anyone suggest some sites / tutorials for using Python to build websites?
Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:07 pm
by Ollie Saunders
onion2k wrote:I'd recommend Python, it's a more useful language.
Are you going to explain why or are we supposed to just accept your opinion without question?
Thanks everyone, I will start looking at Python in the near future.
Oh.. apparently we are! /me chuckles
There are some incredible libraries available. Beautiful Soup for example.
I do like soup...I usually have a piece of bread to dip it whilst it's too hot to eat with a spoon.
Personally I think Ruby is amazing but then I know nothing about Python so it could be just as good. I have read some criticisms of Python, general inconsistencies/annoyances, I can't remember the article now. I haven't really heard anything bad about Ruby, at all. Hmm that's quite remarkable really, maybe I'm falling into a belief system. *shudder*
Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:35 pm
by psurrena
Ole, you didn't do any better job explaining...python it is.
Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:38 pm
by Ollie Saunders
No I didn't because I don't know anything about Python, and I couldn't be bothered....well mainly because I couldn't be bothered. I still think you should look into both. I should probably look into Python, nah, can't be bothered.
Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 6:30 pm
by s.dot
google's pretty fond of python, so python!
Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 7:19 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Hell with it. Learn both. And learn C++ while you are at it. And if you haven't gotten them done yet, learn ColdFusion and .NET at the same time.
Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 4:19 am
by Kieran Huggins
Ruby is hawt... and has more of a rockstar-esque job market at the moment.
Ole and I will report back from all the sexy Ruby parties while y'all debate Star Wars trivia with the python folks

Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 4:20 am
by Ollie Saunders
That I most certainly will
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:15 am
by anjanesh
scottayy wrote:google's pretty fond of python, so python!
python's inventor,
Guido van Rossum has been a google employee since 2005.
Havent checked Ruby so far, the talk on it has been all abt the Rails framework, hardly come across any non-RoR stuff.
Python is very flexible. Moreover, it has one thing that others have dropped - multiple inheritance.
Sad thing is, theres no support for
private class members (some workaround with leading double underscores exist, but not concrete).
I would use python for intensive tasks that need to be run as a cron or in shell for background purposes.