Ruby or Python...which to learn as a noobie and why?

simpleonline12

simpleonline12

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Sep 29, 2009
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If you were new to learning a programming language would you recommend Python or Ruby to start with?

What are the advantages of one over the other?
Which one has more power?
 


I still think learning php will help you tackle any language later - mainly because there are more stupid people using php so you have a lot of help and questions answered.
 
I thought about going the PHP route but from what I've read php is more for server side apps.....unless i'm wrong
 
You should look into learning assembly :/ (all joking aside). As far as Python and Ruby, I've heard a lot of programmers say Python was fun to program with. If I were you, I would select the best supported/documented language that's out there. If you were building web applications, I would suggest looking into PHP.

I started learning Java and had to re-read the fucking tutorial like 10 times to try and wrap my head around it. When I started to look at PHP everything seemed a lot easier to understand. I am by no means a fluent programmer, but I can hack my way around shit.

Once you learn an OO language you really should be able to pick up a new language in no time. I eventually want to be a diverse programmer and select the language that's right for the project.
 
Pat.....I'm looking to move into a langauge that I can use to write both complex and one off programs for desktop apps....mostly for SEO purposes like to create scrapers, bots, and things of that nature....I'm not looking for anything server side because I want to be able to use something that I can work on my desktop.

I tinkered with C# for a bit but fuck that shit....I don't want to have to learn all that extra crap for my one off simple programs.....
 
AllBizNiz:

Why do you recommend learning assembly language? Do you use it more for reversing than building? I'm looking for more of the high level languages to get into.
 
i learned PHP first and then went to Python, all I can say is.. Python wants things done a certain way so if you sloppy you better get that shit cleaned up real quick
 
simpleonline12 said:
AllBizNiz:

Why do you recommend learning assembly language? Do you use it more for reversing than building? I'm looking for more of the high level languages to get into.
Click to expand...

Whoa, hold your horses. It's apparent you have no programming experience and already you want to learn high level languages to build bots and scrapers? Do you even know what high level means in this context?

And desktop apps are not build with python nor ruby.
 
All "languages" lead to fixation of 0's and 1's. Get in there and stop deliberating. Pick a seed and get the concepts down, then eat the whole fruit. You can eat the fruit of any programming language. The syntax varies just like apples and oranges but it's still a fruit. Speaking of fruits, I'm going to pollute my guts with potassium-rich bananas. I wish you luck as I defile myself with the rankness of fruity goodness. Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom.
 
baby he back

stop thinking, start learning.
as i said several weeks ago, pick one of php, python and ruby, and just start.
 
Jumping the gun to a "high-level" programming isn't for everyone (definitely including myself in that list), especially if you're looking to just start out. It takes years of discipline and understanding to see beyond the many lines of code on a screen. I started off 3 years ago with PHP and have gradually learned other open source languages (perl, shell, asp and the usual html,js). But I am far from even considering myself an expert. Pick something you'll like. The good thing about programming open source is that you can typically try it out at a very minimal cost (shared hosting acct) or free if you install them on your computer.

I found it very helpful to not spend too much time over thinking and more doing. Of course everyone has a way of learning something faster. For me it was to just jump in there and use google!

Good luck and be patient!
 
simpleonline12 said:
AllBizNiz:

Why do you recommend learning assembly language? Do you use it more for reversing than building? I'm looking for more of the high level languages to get into.
Click to expand...

if you post one more time here about "wanting to learn programming" without some cold, hard evidence that you've actually gone out and learned something, tried something, built anything at all, i'm going to personally come to your house and poop on your keyboard before revoking your license to the internets.

if you ever want to internet again, your next reply better have helloWorld.py attached. it will take you all of 10 minutes to do, start to finish, from installing the python interpreter on your machine, to opening notepad and typing "print 'hello world'", saving it as helloWorld.py on your desktop, opening a command prompt, and running it with "python c:\Users\ladyman133\Desktop\helloWorld.py".
there, i just spoon-fed it to you. FUCKING DO IT, you will feel great for having successfully started to learn programming, and i will personally swear to respond to every question thread you ever start here with an [attempt-to-be] helpful answer, for the rest of my life until the fucking day i die.

*sigh* noobs.
 
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Flip a coin and go after it. As of Ruby 1.9 speed between the two is suppose to be very close.

Ruby is the new kid on the block and Python has been around for a while.

Not that long ago I was looking to learn one or the other to enhance what I already could do with PHP. I also wanted to be able to do web development with it, and ended up choosing Ruby as I was just more readily able to find info about it in terms of web development.

However since I have started with Ruby I find that the sheer volume of documentation I was used to with PHP was lacking. I was able to overcome it though having a solid programming background before hand though. If you don't have the same kind of background I think you would really really struggle when looking at something like mechanize to scrape with.

I also ran into several gotchas as to getting Ruby 1.9 working properly under Windows, most notably getting gems (addon libraries) to compile, and just getting to integrate with MySQL took a few days until I stumbled upon the solution. Granted this is about a 1000x easier in Linux.

I'm going to stick with Ruby, I think it's a fascinating and well constructed language. With that said, I also don't think it's very beginner friendly (no matter what they try and tell you) nor do I think it's quite matured enough for the first time programmer.

I can't comment on Python personally, but the fact it's been around for so much longer I'd guess it's more stable and mature.

However I don't think that you should really chose either to get started programming. I really think you should dive head first into PHP. All you have to do is setup a AMP (Apache MySQL PHP) stack like xampp (my personal choice). PHP is by far the easiest of languages to learn and once you've built a good base you can move onto something else. Just because you run your scripts through the browser doesn't mean it can't be used in a application type way.

This way you can also create your interfaces with html/xhtml plus other web related technologies that will grow you in other directions.

Just saying PHP is not a push over and should weigh in with heavy consideration. Don't write it off.
 
simpleonline12 said:
Pat.....I'm looking to move into a langauge that I can use to write both complex and one off programs for desktop apps....mostly for SEO purposes like to create scrapers, bots, and things of that nature....I'm not looking for anything server side because I want to be able to use something that I can work on my desktop.

I tinkered with C# for a bit but fuck that shit....I don't want to have to learn all that extra crap for my one off simple programs.....
Click to expand...

I was just at a PHP conference this week, which was oddly enough sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft Web Developer Studio now even supports PHP, and PHP in general runs much better on desktops that it did before. You can also look at using Titanium to create PHP desktop app GUI's. Basically everything you have described can be done very well on a desktop with PHP.

Clientbag said:
Whoa, hold your horses. It's apparent you have no programming experience and already you want to learn high level languages to build bots and scrapers? Do you even know what high level means in this context?

And desktop apps are not build with python nor ruby.
Click to expand...

Dipshit, assembly is not a high level language, it's a low level language. High level means a 3rd, 4th or 5th generation language while assembly is 2nd. Oh wait, your dipshit ass already knew that didn't it...

Also dipshit (yes you are a dipshit) python is used in tons of desktop apps, especially since it has great GTK support and is cross platform. Plus variations like Jython are used more and more in desktop applications these days. Ruby on the other hand is not quite there yet as far as adoption in desktop apps goes, however I suspect within a year it'll be more prevalent. Oh wait, Titanium also has Ruby support too dipshit.
 
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