[Freecats-Dev] Abour Ruby

[Henri Chorand]

Hi,

> I may be able to assist with testing & documenting the Windows version.

This is one of the areas in which the original group of Free CATS initiators
is not fully hopeless.

I do believe that our project must be above reproach concerning
documentation & localization.

> I saw the various past discussions about which programming language
> to use. Didn't want to stick my nose in, as I'm not a programmer.  I'm a
> localization engineer (in the l10n prepping/processing/testing sense) who
> scripts from time to time.  But I have studied a number of programming
> languages (C/C++, Java, PL/SQL, Cobol, Pascal, VBA, Perl, Ruby), and can
> say that for ease of learning, reading, maintaining, etc., Ruby is quite
> compelling.

My own background and skills are roughly similar, even though a few of the
tools I learned and mastered quite well at a time are much more obsolete by
now (Pick Basic, ADS/Hexalis - these are now forgotten 4GLs).

> Most, if not all people that I know who use Ruby, came from Perl & Python.
> If we are talking about using a language that is easily-learned and
> portable, it may be worth looking at Ruby.  Some links...
>
> http://www.rubycentral.com/faq/rubyfaqall.html
> http://hypermetrics.com/ruby37.html
> http://www.math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/%7Egotoken/ruby/compar.shtml

It certainly does look interesting.

Some of the reasons that made me bring Python forward, even though I still
have to learn it, are:
- good string management functions (C looked awful for this, and Ruby also)
- its great ability to glue bits of code written in something else
- the already large number of libraries around
- the availability of IDEs and graphic interfaces builder (a must for the
clients, unless we have a C++ GUIs genius who does that part)

Ruby may also have a smaller user community.

Of course, let us know if part of the above does not do justice to Ruby
(especially the IDEs and graphic interfaces builder part, please).

That said, if you would like to make bits of code on your own for a given
module, why not pick your preferred language?


Cheers,

Henri