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No, choosing a (Turing-complete) language is really choosing a community, of people who work on the same things you do in a similar way. Community implies shared values. Python's belief in there being only one correct way to do it, for example, is anathema to Ruby and Perl types. Ruby people like being called "rock stars" or "ninjas" (or it wouldn't be widespread in their community, job ads, blogs, etc etc). Just like Perl types like being called "wizards" (see how many times the word "magic" appears in the documentation).



We absolutely do not all like being called rockstars or ninjas. I do agree that the communities are different but the differences are usually not that important when comparing languages that are very similar, such as Python and Ruby.


Which is why I said "Turing-complete".

Python and Ruby communities are radically different. Ruby people tend to be in their 20s and primarily employed to do Ruby, mainly for websites. Python people tend to be older and write Python as a part of their main job, they are not employed as programmers (and as such language choice is not mandated).


More generalizations. sigh




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