Programming Newbie: Ruby or Java?

[Stephen Waits]

If lines of code were the winning factor, people would almost
always use
perl for all of its infamous one-liner line-noise solutions to
things...

May not be a "winning factor", but certainly a factor.

++Pascal

--Steve

 

[Joe Van Dyk]

If lines of code were the winning factor, people would almost always use
perl for all of its infamous one-liner line-noise solutions to things...

Can't you use Ruby in place of Perl for all those one-liner line-noise
solutions?

 

[Peter Burns]

If lines of code were the winning factor, people would almost always use
perl for all of its infamous one-liner line-noise solutions to things...

j.

Very true. Succinctness and readability are both key. Luckily ruby
excels at both.

 

[Dick Davies]

Thanks for looking!

I'm brand new to programming and had just decided to learn Java as a
first language, then stumbled accross Ruby, which seems far simpler to
learn, but doesn't seem to have as many resources/books etc.

You make that sound like a bad thing :

http://www.garbett.org/upload/books.jpg


_why has been busy again. Have a look at:

http://tryruby.hobix.com/

then the poignant guide and chris pines 'learn to program' (both a google
away).

I wouldn't recommend the pickaxe to programming noobs since IMO its
not for total beginners to OOP and programming.

 

[James Britt]

You make that sound like a bad thing :

http://www.garbett.org/upload/books.jpg

http://ruby-doc.org/bookstore/



In general,

http://ruby-doc.org/

James


--

http://www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
http://www.artima.com/rubycs/ - Ruby Code & Style: Writers wanted
http://www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff
http://www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
http://www.30secondrule.com - Building Better Tools

 

[Aemca]

VB is a terrible language, Delphi at least has some design to it,

I'm sure there's RAD type development environments for Java
although I haven't used them.

VB.Net is a great language... just look at how many people are using it, and
liking it.

 

[James Britt]

VB.Net is a great language... just look at how many people are using it, and
liking it.

Every so often I poke around with SharpDevelop, a free, open-source IDE
for VB.net and C#. Plays well with both Mono and the MS .Net SDK. It
makes creating C# GUI apps so simple I wonder why people would bother
with VB.net.

James

--

http://www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
http://www.artima.com/rubycs/ - Ruby Code & Style: Writers wanted
http://www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff
http://www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
http://www.30secondrule.com - Building Better Tools

 

[James Britt]

The difference is syntactic-sugar only, anyway, no?

Um, I'm not really sure, as I haven't spent that much time with either,
but believe that C# either things not readily available in VB.net. But
maybe it "just" syntax.

I found this after some Googling:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000128.html

"However, I was disappointed that Dan didn't cover the way his
prediction in the original eBook has come true-- as nonsensical as it
may seem, C# developers are paid more than VB.Net developers to write
the very same .NET framework code."


So, maybe one should learn C# over VB.net because people will think
better of you and pay you better.




James
--

http://www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
http://www.artima.com/rubycs/ - Ruby Code & Style: Writers wanted
http://www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff
http://www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
http://www.30secondrule.com - Building Better Tools

 

[Schulty]

I would have to agree with Ed. Nix on the desktop application. Those
are so 1990 I have been writing Java code for 9 years, and ever
since I have taken a stab at Ruby, and more recently Rails, have never
looked back. Java is great but pales in comparison to Ruby, IMHO.

Future proof your skills and go with Ruby. And back to the web
application suggestion... No question there. A web application
written in Rails will be faster to production, easier to maintain,
serve more platforms, and will teach you more marketable skills in the
writing of it.

 

[Dab]

Thanks everyone for your overwhelming input!

I've started studying......Ruby, of course!

So the concensus seems to be that I should forget the Desktop App.
route.......and go with RoRails.....which sounds great, as long as that
will enable me to package my first program idea and market it (to
Independent Apartment Buildings and Property Management
companies)...will it?

Thanks again!!!!
Dab

 

[Dick Davies]

So the concensus seems to be that I should forget the Desktop App.
route.......and go with RoRails.....which sounds great, as long as that
will enable me to package my first program idea and market it (to
Independent Apartment Buildings and Property Management
companies)...will it?

Course. You can just run a webserver on your laptop.

 

[Jules]

I don't know what:

Independent Apartment Buildings and Property Management companies

are, but if you want to show someone your application:

http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/distributingrubyapplications/rails.html

You can wrap your application in one .exe (you don't even need a
separate database!). The email it to someone and that person can launch
it locally.