I started using reddit in 2006, so I remember a lot of the Ruby vs. Python battle from around that time. Here are a few points that were often raised back then (and which I haven't seen raised here):
- The common wisdom back then was that Python was attracting mostly C programmers who were looking for a faster way to write C and to interface with it, while Ruby was attracting mostly Java programmers who were tired of writing FactoryFactoryFactory classes. As a result, the Python community had a lot more C programmers who were able to work on the lower-level parts of Python (such as the VM and native libraries, like Numpy).
- The original Ruby interpreter (MRI) was very, very slow. It was replaced by YARV when Ruby 1.9 was released. YARV was a bytecode interpreter, while MRI, if I recall correctly, didn't even use bytecode. It just did the parsing while it was executing code. Before the switch to YARV, I remember regularly seeing Ruby at the bottom of the programming language benchmarks page, and it took something like 100x-150x longer than C for a task. Python was about 5x as fast as Ruby back then, IIRC.
- Aside from speed, the Ruby VM had a lot of other problems. The Python VM was rock-solid in comparison. See the links below for more info.
- The Ruby community back then had a reputation for being... unruly, let's say. Some characters there. It also suffered from that sort of chronic beginner syndrome that appears in isolated programming communities. I remember one guy in particular who was fond of justifying Ruby's weaknesses in odd ways. (For example, he said that Ruby doesn't need a debugger because it makes coding so easy that you'll never need one! In reality, Ruby didn't have a debugger because no one felt like making one.)
- The common wisdom back then was that Python was attracting mostly C programmers who were looking for a faster way to write C and to interface with it, while Ruby was attracting mostly Java programmers who were tired of writing FactoryFactoryFactory classes. As a result, the Python community had a lot more C programmers who were able to work on the lower-level parts of Python (such as the VM and native libraries, like Numpy).
- The original Ruby interpreter (MRI) was very, very slow. It was replaced by YARV when Ruby 1.9 was released. YARV was a bytecode interpreter, while MRI, if I recall correctly, didn't even use bytecode. It just did the parsing while it was executing code. Before the switch to YARV, I remember regularly seeing Ruby at the bottom of the programming language benchmarks page, and it took something like 100x-150x longer than C for a task. Python was about 5x as fast as Ruby back then, IIRC.
- Aside from speed, the Ruby VM had a lot of other problems. The Python VM was rock-solid in comparison. See the links below for more info.
- The Ruby community back then had a reputation for being... unruly, let's say. Some characters there. It also suffered from that sort of chronic beginner syndrome that appears in isolated programming communities. I remember one guy in particular who was fond of justifying Ruby's weaknesses in odd ways. (For example, he said that Ruby doesn't need a debugger because it makes coding so easy that you'll never need one! In reality, Ruby didn't have a debugger because no one felt like making one.)
Here is a blog post talking about issues with the Ruby VM: https://web.archive.org/web/20100606205042/http://cbcg.net/2... (I never forgot that title, haha)
and the discussion on reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1kg8e/python_u...