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Two languages, too similar, competing in the same space.

Martin von Loewis loewis at informatik.hu-berlin.de
Fri Dec 28 12:54:22 EST 2001 
Ron Stephens <rdsteph at earthlink.net> writes:

> I feel that Ruby is so similar in design, purpose, and objectives to
> Python, that it competes directly with Python for developers' mind
> share.

I think it competes with Perl much more than with Python, if for no
other reason that there are probably more Perl developers out there
than Python developers.

> And I like and respect Matz and the whole Ruby community. I wish them well.
> But I recognize that their success may, on the margins at least, slow down
> Python.

Python is a programming language, so it does not have, in itself,
"speed", meaning it cannot be slowed down. 

Perhaps you meant that it will decrease the growth rate of the number
of Python developers world-wide. That is hard to find out, as there
are two many other factors involved, and because it is difficult to
find out how things would have developed without Ruby.

Perhaps ypu meant that the rate in which Python releases appear will
be affected, or the rate in which changes are made to Python. I do not
think this is true. People contributing to Python development are
unlikely to switch to Ruby, since they have already invested quite
some time into that project, which they might consider lost if they
switch to another language.

Regards,
Martin
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