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Brian Bush
4,398 PointsLoops, Arrays, Strings etc.
I was just looking over the JavaScript and Ruby libraries and I noticed that both of them have these types in their language. (Loops, Arrays, Strings, and so on) My question is do they use the same code for these types? or are they similar enough it makes it easy going from learning JS to Ruby? I would imagine that even if they did have different code for each, they execute the same way, just with different coding?
3 Answers
Paul Graham
1,396 PointsAs far as style, variables are assigned without declaring the variable's type. That's known as "duck typing" or dynamic typing.
They act very differently at execution time. Some people consider JS untyped, which is inaccurate. It's actually weakly typed. It allows you do to all kinds of silly, invalid, and insecure things but allows for greater flexibility.
Ruby is strongly typed, which means all types are checked prior to execution. Ruby sometimes seems weakly typed because it allows you to mix types in certain operations, but it's performing conversions on the fly, not actually letting you smash types together.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsNearly all programming languages use the same structures for example Ruby, JavaScript, Python, Objective-C, Java they all use those. Learning to think algorithmically is a skill that is very transferable between languages.
There are of course major syntax differences in nearly all cases. There are of course some major differences in implementation which you have to learn about when learning the syntax.
Brian Bush
4,398 Pointsthank you both for the quick replies. would either of you recommend to learn php before ruby? or vice versa?
Paul Graham
1,396 PointsIf your main goal is to get a job right now, PHP is probably a better bet. As a language Ruby is superior but PHP is not as bad as it's reputation, especially in recent versions. The Ruby toolset is useful outside of Ruby itself. I don't write much Ruby code professionally but I do extensively use tons of Ruby gems like Jekyll every day.
You should probably learn them both.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsJames Barnett
39,199 Points>noticed that both of them have these types in their language. (Loops, Arrays, Strings, and so on)Paul Graham - Judging by the examples of types he gave, I think he means structures not data types.
Paul Graham
1,396 PointsPaul Graham
1,396 PointsStructure is addressed in the first sentence. Both languages are duck typed.