- The OOP features of Ruby are consistent and ubiquitous (everything in Ruby is an object); Python depends on manual patterns to do OOP (self as the required first argument). Python also depends on special decorators to indicate what functions are instance vs static. Ruby does have a difference in definition, but it's simpler and more obvious (and requires one line fewer of code to define)
- Only finally has Python gotten a switch statement, and surprisingly it has adopted some Elixir-ish pattern matching features. Incidentally, some in the Python community are strongly against this new thing. "Why would you need that!?" Prior to 3.10, you would need more complicate if/else if structures in Python to do the same thing you could do in a concise and clear Ruby case (switch).
- Operations on collections: this is often described as functional programming, but it really is just "doing stuff on collections of data". And in that story, Python's list comprehensions are arguably less readable and less logical than Ruby's. Many of the tools you need in Python must be explicitly included from functools module.
- Ternary operator: many languages have `expression ? do_true_path : do_false_path`. It's a very common pattern which is concise and honestly quite clear. "This thing is true? then do this; else do that". But in Python you break that up into "do_true_path if expression else do_false_path".
- Everything in Ruby has a return value, but not so in Python. So in Ruby you can make assignments (or return values) from the result of if/case. For example, assume you want to return a specific value based on some series of conditions, such as handling an error and returning some enriched data based on the error code. In Python you will have to define a local variable and explicitly set that variable equal to some value in each branch of the conditional. Then afterward, you can use the value of the local variable. Or you would have multiple returns, one in each conditional branch. In Ruby you can simply do x = case ..., or because the last statement of a function is the return value, you wouldn't even have to return it. You just have 'case ...', and the value of the branch is what is returned.
There's a lot more. Some of it is subjective, but my belief is that once someone really knows both, they will prefer the Ruby way. And the more languages you know, the more you develop refined tastes. Ruby still holds up well after knowing 10 languages for me.
(added): the whole whitespace as code thing of Python. It does have one common pitfall, and that is when a line of code gets accidentally indented or unindented below a block which was indented. That line changes scope, likely changing the runtime result; but it may be technically valid, so the developer may not notice the mistake. This is just not a problem with languages that have { } or begin/end delimiters.
- The OOP features of Ruby are consistent and ubiquitous (everything in Ruby is an object); Python depends on manual patterns to do OOP (self as the required first argument). Python also depends on special decorators to indicate what functions are instance vs static. Ruby does have a difference in definition, but it's simpler and more obvious (and requires one line fewer of code to define)
- Only finally has Python gotten a switch statement, and surprisingly it has adopted some Elixir-ish pattern matching features. Incidentally, some in the Python community are strongly against this new thing. "Why would you need that!?" Prior to 3.10, you would need more complicate if/else if structures in Python to do the same thing you could do in a concise and clear Ruby case (switch).
- Operations on collections: this is often described as functional programming, but it really is just "doing stuff on collections of data". And in that story, Python's list comprehensions are arguably less readable and less logical than Ruby's. Many of the tools you need in Python must be explicitly included from functools module.
- Ternary operator: many languages have `expression ? do_true_path : do_false_path`. It's a very common pattern which is concise and honestly quite clear. "This thing is true? then do this; else do that". But in Python you break that up into "do_true_path if expression else do_false_path".
- Everything in Ruby has a return value, but not so in Python. So in Ruby you can make assignments (or return values) from the result of if/case. For example, assume you want to return a specific value based on some series of conditions, such as handling an error and returning some enriched data based on the error code. In Python you will have to define a local variable and explicitly set that variable equal to some value in each branch of the conditional. Then afterward, you can use the value of the local variable. Or you would have multiple returns, one in each conditional branch. In Ruby you can simply do x = case ..., or because the last statement of a function is the return value, you wouldn't even have to return it. You just have 'case ...', and the value of the branch is what is returned.
There's a lot more. Some of it is subjective, but my belief is that once someone really knows both, they will prefer the Ruby way. And the more languages you know, the more you develop refined tastes. Ruby still holds up well after knowing 10 languages for me.
(added): the whole whitespace as code thing of Python. It does have one common pitfall, and that is when a line of code gets accidentally indented or unindented below a block which was indented. That line changes scope, likely changing the runtime result; but it may be technically valid, so the developer may not notice the mistake. This is just not a problem with languages that have { } or begin/end delimiters.