[screenothethird]

It’s just inferior to Python, nobody is making a more complex argument than that. Why ever use Ruby when there’s a virtually identical system that’s faster with a bigger community.

[Calavar]

Because Ruby is just a better thought out language than Python is. It had a sane package management story 15 years before Python. It doesn't rely on weird hacks like exception throwing for iterator control flow. It doesn't have nearly as many warts and footguns on basic operations (for example, in Python csv.writer(file).writerows(rows) is broken unless you remembered to set the newline mode on the file; in Ruby file.write(rows.to_csv) just works). Thanks to a sane VM design it's mainline JIT can actually run code faster than interpreted code (something that CPython's JIT can't do [1])

Many Pythonistas are woefully ignorant of what's going on outside their siloed community.

[1] https://fidget-spinner.github.io/posts/jit-reflections.html

[lern_too_spel]

Everything being mutable by default, including strings, is about as big a foot gun as you can find in a high level language.

[BowBun]

In what ways is it inferior? Neither Ruby or Python are 'fast', so if that is one of your qualifiers you've already made a suboptimal choice.

As for a bigger community, what does that serve? The large python community adds misdirection and more voices to a language that lacks some basic features still. Async/sync code models are still being finalized whereas Ruby has been stable in this regard for 10+ years. Same with tooling - the Ruby side is more consistent and stable: Sidekiq for background jobs (Celery is barely coming to maturity), Bundler for dependencies (pip? poetry? uv?). Mature auth + other frameworks like Devise.

Having worked in both languages professionally, I strongly disagree with your take.

[bjoli]

Ruby is a lot less awful than Python in my opinion. That is of course a very subjective opinion. The only reason I write more Python than Ruby is that ruby lacks the libraries I need.

Somewhere along the line Python got all the momentum, and ruby got none and now python is better if you just want to get shit done.

But man. I wish it was the other way around. I have one code snippet that summarises what I dislike about python:

    if input() == "dynamic scope?":
        defined = "happyhappy"
    print(defined)
    

Seeing that I understand why I see yuck in just about every corner of python.

Edit: in ruby it also works, but the variable is at least always defined.

[stouset]

I’m sure I’ll get downvoted for it, but strict technical merits aside, Python to me seems built by engineers who lacked any sense of taste. Ruby is beautiful.

[qezz]

> in ruby it also works, but the variable is at least always defined.

How is this even a pro? I agree that Python scoping rules are frustrating, but tbh not sure if I would prefer Ruby's behavior in this case

[amazingman]

Blanket statements like this are unhelpfully tribal. Ruby has its uses, and underpins one of the most successful (and cloned) MVC frameworks of all time. But yeah, Python received the attention of data scientists early on and now it's a lingua franca of sorts in that domain. Since AI is so hot right now that makes Python seem superior, but really that's just contingency.

If you're going to make claims, support them.

[pansa2]

> that’s faster

In every test I've done, Ruby has been faster than Python. In my experience that's been the case since Ruby 1.9, with the move to YARV.

[osigurdson]

I don't think anyone says: "I switched from Python to Ruby" (of vice versa) for performance.

[pxc]

> Why ever use Ruby when there’s a virtually identical system [...] with a bigger community.

There was a time in the history of Python when people who chose Python did so primarily because they found it beautiful or pleasant to work with. These are reasonable factors in choosing a language, and they continue to be popular reasons for choosing relatively unpopular languages today.

A related essay has made the rounds on HN before. It might be worth revisiting if this question is on your mind: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/10/26/python-is-a-volunt...

[block_dagger]

Why? Because Python is generally slower, uses significant whitespace in its syntax, and lacks the metaprogramming features of Ruby.

[voidfunc]

Python is great and I love writing glue in it, but Ruby is just a better designed language and ecosystem overall.

[BurningFrog]

A lot of times 2-3 lines of Ruby needs 5-8 lines in Python.

[thunky]

Ruby/rails has always felt fragile to me. Like you have to write the same tests over and over to make up for the looseness of it, not to mention the culture of breaking changes adds insult to injury. Just seems like a mess and the nice syntax (subjectively) isn't nearly enough to win when better options exist.