| Here is the exact quote from the article: > Anyway, what did this mean for Rails and how does this principle continue to guide its evolution? To answer that, I think it’s instructive to look at another principle that was often used to describe Ruby in the early days: The Principle of Least Surprise. Ruby should behave how you’d expect it to. This is easily described with a contrast to Python: > code snippet > Ruby accepts both exit and quit to accommodate the programmer’s obvious desire to quit its interactive console. Python, on the other hand, pedantically instructs the programmer how to properly do what’s requested, even though it obviously know what is meant (since it’s displaying the error message). That’s a pretty clear-cut, albeit small, example of PoLS. Nowhere in the above is he calling Python bad. He's using an example of how Python handles a thing to illustrate how Ruby handles that exact situation differently inline with his philosophy "Principle of Least Surprise". I'm not trying to get into a semantic argument here, just pointing out that he's making an illustration with a minor detail. Calling Python "bad" would make no sense, because Python is wonderful. This is just a way to highlight how Ruby does things differently than others have chosen to do them. |
I just don't see why DHH needs to do this - ruby has so many things that make it stand on its own.