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Hello Ruby – Almost there
121–128 of 128 posts
Re: Hello Ruby – Almost there
#122I'm not sure whether Ruby is a good intro to programming. It doesn't have first-level functions, instead it has blocks (which can take parameters to serve the same use as functions but aren't). What would syntactically be a reference to a method in other languages instead invokes the method with no arguments. It doesn't have namespaced imports, instead its imports effectively behave like includes (i.e. the "dump truc…
> Ruby isn't widely used in practice
I paused reading to write this: waaat?
Re: Hello Ruby – Almost there
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What? Ruby on Rails is ridiculously popular as a web framework. This is the typical HN bias. If you ask someone on HN what framework they think is most popular, they'll likely say Rails. But is this actually true? In comparison to, say, Django or the various node frameworks, sure, it's popular. But in comparison to the "big guys" (the various frameworks for PHP, Java, C#) it barely registers.
> But in comparison to the "big guys" (the various frameworks for PHP, Java, C#) it barely registers. [citation needed] [citation needed] especially for C#; the only .NET-based language I know of that registers as even a blip in web development is, for better or worse, ASP.NET. [citation needed] also for PHP frameworks; most PHP web "applications", in my experience, don't use any sort of "framework" at all, instead o…
> especially for C#; the only .NET-based language I know of that registers as even a blip in web development is, for better or worse, ASP.NET.
ASP.NET isn't a language, its a web framework for .NET; usually used with either C# or VB.NET.
Re: Hello Ruby – Almost there
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It doesn't have first-level functions, instead it has blocks Ruby also has lambdas, which if not first-level functions, are pretty darn close. > It doesn't have namespaced imports, instead its imports effectively behave like includes (i.e. the "dump truck" approach to imports). I can't tell if you're talking about `require` or `include`. `require` is strictly meant for loading source files. If you want things to be…
> What? Ruby on Rails is ridiculously popular as a web framework. This is the typical HN bias. If you ask someone on HN what framework they think is most popular, they'll likely say Rails. But is this actually true? In comparison to, say, Django or the various node frameworks, sure, it's popular. But in comparison to the "big guys" (the various frameworks for PHP, Java, C#) it barely registers.
> This is the typical HN bias.
Go check on Reddit then ? :)
Re: Hello Ruby – Almost there
#125It's all fun and games until the kids reach a gem dependency conflict that bundler doesn't fix......
library dependacy problems could happen with any language.
Re: Hello Ruby – Almost there
#126I'm not sure whether Ruby is a good intro to programming. It doesn't have first-level functions, instead it has blocks (which can take parameters to serve the same use as functions but aren't). What would syntactically be a reference to a method in other languages instead invokes the method with no arguments. It doesn't have namespaced imports, instead its imports effectively behave like includes (i.e. the "dump truc…
> I guess it depends on whether you want to teach programming as an art form and toy or as a general skill.
So learning it as a general skill excludes the notion of art and gaming? What? If coding wasn't intrinsecally A LOT about PLAYING with ideas and concepts and designing them in the most simple/efficient, beautiful and creative way (art) then IT wouldn't have got where it is now.
> maybe I'm just getting old and cranky
From what you say and how you speak, yes you are. And you are also half conscious about it. You could have reached some kind of saturation point. Maybe you need to do something different for a while and find other stimuli somewhere else.
Re: Hello Ruby – Almost there
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But in comparison to the "big guys" (the various frameworks for PHP, Java, C#) it barely registers. [citation needed] [citation needed] especially for C#; the only .NET-based language I know of that registers as even a blip in web development is, for better or worse, ASP.NET. [citation needed] also for PHP frameworks; most PHP web "applications", in my experience, don't use any sort of "framework" at all, instead o…
> especially for C#; the only .NET-based language I know of that registers as even a blip in web development is, for better or worse, ASP.NET. ASP.NET isn't a language, its a web framework for .NET; usually used with either C# or VB.NET.
In which case I stand corrected there (I was getting it confused with ASP/VBScript; I've tended to steer clear of either).
Re: Hello Ruby – Almost there
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
I learned to code at age 7 with QBasic, deconstructing Gorrilas in DOS, and later SmallTalk. Both languages are horrible, but were incredibly easy to learn. No one taught me, I played with them until I learned, and back then there was no internet. There are so many aspects of Ruby that make it well suited for teaching kids about programming that go WAY, WAY beyond the ridiculous observations you've made. You might as…
To me that appears to be the strangest way to express a loop in any language I've used (and I've used a lot of them). It also really bothers me that in ruby you can invoke a function on a null value to see if its null (myvar.nil?). That's really messed up...
If you knew nothing about programming that would not look strange to you. On the contrary, it might look as the most intuitive way to do it. And since this book is for kids who know nothing about coding... well, you can see where I am going.