Great roundup. Its nice to see all this points. One big difference between scripting and non-scripting languages is that, in scripting languages you can modify the structure of the program at runtime, while in compiled languages you are stuck once you compile it. C++ does have metaprogramming through the use of templates and those programs look immensely complicated, but it can't introduce new data types and logic at runtime. I kinda dislike C++ from beyond templates as the code looks super ugly.
The ability to modify the program at runtime (and elegantly) is a huge advantage over compiled ones and allows you to express new category of solutions.
Programs that change itself is in my opinion pretty advanced.
So it seems, Python and Ruby allows the programmer to free the mind from the low-level housekeeping and focus 100% on logical thinking and give incredible expressiveness. I would buy that.
I wonder how often an above average python/ruby programmer use its metaprogramming / reflection capabitlies?
The ability to modify the program at runtime (and elegantly) is a huge advantage over compiled ones and allows you to express new category of solutions. Programs that change itself is in my opinion pretty advanced.
So it seems, Python and Ruby allows the programmer to free the mind from the low-level housekeeping and focus 100% on logical thinking and give incredible expressiveness. I would buy that. I wonder how often an above average python/ruby programmer use its metaprogramming / reflection capabitlies?