ChrisAn and Python

/*
More importantly, I think the C++ hangover that influenced Java and C# has peaked
*/

A little more light on this, please...

How about these:

http://www.saltypickle.com/rubydotnet/
http://rubydotnet.sourceforge.net/
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-PaloAlto/9251/ruby/nrb.html

I have no clue as to how mature any of these are. Why would someone want to use Ruby over C#, Java, VB, or C++? Just curious.

- Mark

Mark, For stuff like this:

arr = %w[Don Box Guru]
first, last, level = arr

Ruby's a much higher level language with a whole lotta syntactic sugar that boosts productivity. Sure, you can accomplish the same thing with code gen (and in fact, Ruby's has a lot of runtime code-gen) but the difference is that it's built into the language not a tool. The language IS the tool.

C#
public class Foo
{
private string bar;
public string Bar {get {return bar;} set{bar = value;}}
private string bah;
public string Bah {get {return bah;} set{bah = value;}}
private string bas;
public string Bas {get {return bas;} set{bas = value;}}
}

Ruby:
class Foo
attr_accessor :bar, :bah, :bas
end

Don, we're working on this :-)
http://www.castleproject.org/index.php/Rook

And the parser is looking good!
http://jroller.com/page/hammett/20050523#something_good_is_coming_on

About funding, wow! that would be great. I just wished that my post ending was a little different:
http://jroller.com/page/hammett/20050227#my_interview_at_microsoft

Cheers!

"the C++ hangover that influenced Java and C# has peaked.."

hmmm... what do u mean by this, my good man Don.

Mark, because Ruby has "thought leadership"
in dev commmunity now. Ruby blocks,co-routines,mix-ins, etc - all that allow for much better ways of designing interface/implementation hierarchies. One may still use C#, yet its highly beneficial even for C# designs to know how to "think Ruby".

imho Don means by C++ hangover that C/C++ root languages operate on number of assumptions which were true in 80-ties, but wrong today. C/C++ it assumes compilers sux, memory is scarce, CPUs are slow. The goal is to be as small and as efficient as possible and the only entity who can achive that (lacking good compilers and optimizers) is human developer. its ok to write code for years, the goal is not development speed its execution seed. languages of that era are built around these assumptions.

Now its completely different ballgame. 95% of developers coudn't beat efficiency of modern compilers/JITs. CPU/memory/speed is dirt cheap. 2K$ dell blade is like millions of XTs. everything C/C++ was designed for (and geneticaly got carried over to Java/C#) is sort of wrong now. The only factor to consider is dev speed/productivity.

It would be totally awesome to support Ruby as well. Some of us just love Ruby and won't let it go that easily, so some care for it on .Net would be awesome.

How can one be so anti-Python? Download Python from ActiveState.com and just start coding. Tell yourself how much you hate using indention to delimit blocks. Notice how the syntax is like psuedo-code and doesn't have any C like appeal. Notice that you have accomplished your coding task in hardly no time at all. Notice that you will be able to read your code in several months.
Think of all the little tools and things that you can create now that it takes so little effort. Now get over lack of C-like appeal, now learn to appreciate indention based blocks because } and ends are redundant and only a source of errors.
Be happy.

Dude, if you don't see the power of python over ruby, then just use ruby. It's that simple..

The fact is that from code for AI, to mobile phones, to operating systems, to web applications servers, python is the winner. Many people have looked at both and said, "Python Rules!"...

Anyway, you do what you want, but don't stand in the way of anyone else using python on the CLR..

Don, did you see that Google is funding this?

http://www.mono-project.com/StudentProjects#Ruby.NET

Don Box: I think the C++ hangover that influenced Java and C# has peaked. There was a hangover when Gosling...

Queensland University of Technology has a Ruby implementation on .Net - http://www.plas.fit.qut.edu.au/rubynet/

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We hope to have an alpha release ready by mid 2006. This release will concentrate on achieving correct Ruby semantics and will not attempt to address performance or .NET interoperability issues. We seek supportive parties to help us out with testing and constructive feedback at that stage.

A public beta release should be available by the end of 2006 that will include performance optimizations for commonly occurring special cases and better support for interoperability with other .NET programs.