http://www.ntecs.de/old-hp/s-direktnet/rb/ruby.pdf
Ruby가 어떤 점에서 다른 language 들(esp. Python, Perl)에 비해 뛰어난지를 설명하는 article이다. syntax로부터 library까지 여러가지 내용이 있지만, 인상깊었던 것들만 요약하면 다음과 같다.
What is Ruby?
– modern, interpreted and object-oriented programming language
– Ruby > (Smalltalk + Perl) / 2
– developed, having Perl, Python, Smalltalk and Eiffel in mind
Easy to learn
– has good tutorial
– easy syntax
– clean, readable but short
Syntax
– variables only contain references to objects
– all constructs have a value (e.g. if-construct)
– variable name convention defines characteristics of variable (capital letter, small letter, $, @)
(Perl use my, local, …)
– iterator, blocks with method
– exception model support post-condition (begin-rescue-ensure-end)
– dynamic type checking
OO Features
– instance variables (member variable in C++) are only accessible from insdie the class (maybe getter-, setter- methods)
– attr_accessor function of module Module dynamically creates a getter- and setter- method for each parameter
– extend existing class in adding a whole class
– support only single inheritance
– support mix-in (alternate multiple inheritance): every module can be included into a class
Library
– Perl-like Regular expression
– DB access (MySQL, Msql, PostgreSQL, Interbase, Oracle)
Language Extension
– C/C++ extension
– Ruby/Python