What's better about Ruby than Python? - comp.lang.python
The title made me nervous that this would be run-of-the-mill fanboy garbage. But I trust the author (Alex Martelli), so I read it, and I'm glad I did. It's reasonable and sane.My two big take-away points:1) It's very nearly a wash. Ruby and Python are so close together (beneath any superficial differences) that distinguishing is almost an exercise in futility.2) The key thing about Ruby he doesn't like is its "TOTAL, unbridled "dynamicity", including the ability to "reopen" any existing class, including all built-in ones, and change its behavior at run-time." To M's way of thinking, this makes Ruby less "suited for use in large production 
applications" and more suited for "tinkering."I don't buy the argument myself, but I will admit that when I first started learning about Ruby, everything I read went on and on about how cool it was that you could open everything up and play. But as I read more, I discovered that the community seems pretty heavily tilted against monkey-patching now. (I may be wrong about this, but it's my impression.) I don't think that means Ruby is for tinkering only, but it does suggest that Martelli's concern is legitimate.He also offers some nice pasta recipes along the way. (So much so, that now I'm hungry.)