What should I learn next, Python or Ruby?

It’s been quite some time since I learned a new skill and this feeling has started to haunt my mind. I have had thing feeling quite a few times before and every time it resulted in me adding a new skill to my resume. In 2004 it was PHP and in 2005 it made me to (re)learn Javascript for Ajax and in 2006, almost 7 months have gone 🙁 and so I have decided to get my hands dirty on something new.

The two new things top on my list are Python and Ruby and I have to decide upon either one of them. So guys, I am looking for your suggestion since I am new to both of them. If you have used any one of them then do share those experience with me.

Right now I am slightly biased towards Python, after knowing that even Jeremy is learning it. More over both Drive into Python by Mark and the Yahoo Python Developer center could assist me. 😉

So will the snake swallow the gem?

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11 Comments so far

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  • Rajiv Shankar says:

    Ruby on Rails.

  • Yuvi says:

    Python:D because, there’s this huge library available in the Form of the .NET Framework(IronPython), and also the JDK(Jython). And, Ironpython is right now RC, and about to be released as v1.0 final shortly…. So, Python…

    P.S. I don’t like Ruby because, uh, say if you start a variable with a capital letter, it becomes a constant, automatically!. And, there’s no usable .NET/Java enabled compiler available, so…

    P.P.S.: There seems to be a bug in the template, which causes a rather big gap between the “formatting guidelines” and the “post comment” button, in IE7 b3….

  • Ranganath.S says:

    Hi again,

    I vote for Groovy.. Its pretty good.. http://groovy.codehaus.org/Beginners+Tutorial even i had doubts either to go for Ruby or Python.. i learnt that Groovy is better than those..

    Cheers!

  • Reset Reboot says:

    I really recommend you Python instead of Ruby. Yeah, it may have Ruby on Rails, but it’s just nearly all you can do with it. It doesn’t have the whole library that Python has, and the best thing of python: The Pythonic Way. When you encounter a library made in The Pythonic Way, you’ll know it when you read the documentation and feel the usability, focus, power and ease of use.

    And yes, you can also program for .NET, Java, and you also have a monster framework like that one of Ruby on Rails (TurboGears and Django) to something simple and useful (like Web.py and Cheetah).

    And remember, Google, NASA, and even the ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) use Python as the glue and their “language for everything”.

  • Sudar says:

    @Rajiv, Yuvi, Ranganath, Reset

    Thanks guys for the suggestions. I have finally settled down to Python. I just finished reading A byte of Python and am currently reading Drive into Python. Will post you guys about my experience.

    @Yuvi,

    Is it? I havn’t tested it in IE 7.0. Can you post a screenshot of it?

  • Yuvi says:

    Cool…

    So, CPython or Java or IronPython? I guess it will be CPython, but the rest are CPython compatible anyway…

    Screenshot on the way after school….

  • Aswin Anand says:

    I had been learning ruby on rails (http://www.rubyonrails.org/) for sometime and its superb 🙂

  • Rajiv Shankar says:

    The rate at which Ruby on Rails is growing, it might even give Java a run for its money!

    In btw. Sudar, good work on optimizing your blog for mobile devices. Its working erratically but still is good.

  • Sudar says:

    @Yuvi,
    Right now it is CPython

    @Rajiv,
    To be frank, I never had the idea of optimizing my blog for mobile devices, since I thought none of my readers are going to read it through mobiles.

    But you proved me wrong. And if I am correct, you are my first reader using mobile.

    Can you tell me which parts are rendering incorrectly so that I can optimize them a bit more?

    Cheers,
    Sudar

  • Rajiv Shankar says:

    I have a Nokia N71 which has a full fledged XHTML browser like IE or FF. When I visited your blog for the first time using the mobile, it recognised the OS and identified the browser to be a WAP browser and optimized the page rendering. The width of the page got shrinked and was restricted to the width of my phone screen.

    The next time I visited your blog, it was identitifed as a full fledged browser and rendered the HTML as it is without any optimization. May be the the first instance was just one off, but you better look into it !! 🙂

    And the reason why I was using my mobile to read your blog – well the internet speeds in TCS is very slow, and it takes ages for a page to load. I find browsing the internet through my mobile to be more faster than that !! :lol

  • You’ve seen the growth as well use of both the languages for a very long time. What would you recommend in 2017? The use case for the languages is Internet of Things. I’m working with a couple of dashboards to access data real time. To build the web app for the same I have the options of NodeJS, Ruby, Python. This is the framework currently being used by me – Dashing. This has ports for all the languages.

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