[jtprince]

Re-implementing is much easier than implementing. Scipy source code is all available, right? Besides, we aren't trying to duplicate the entire scipy stack and ecosystem. We are just trying to make it easier to do common scientific computing in Ruby. Also, trying to do it in new ways.

You seem to be saying that ruby is python, just with perl's inconsistency and unreadableness. The syntax differences between python and ruby (more than 2% IMHO) amount to very large differences in code organization. The ruby community places a high premium on brevity and clarity, and ruby's flexible syntax facilitates this. Part of the reason monolithic code bases are more rare in ruby is because we tend to do more with less code. We are talking about two very different forests.

We weren't going to be working on Theano or SAGE anyway, just doing basic science computation to solve real problems in our fields. That's really the problem, we find ourselves quite productive doing science in ruby at the moment, despite its relative immaturity in this area. It's hard not to imagine what we could do with a few more foundational tools. It really is a small cost to enable us to be able to do science in ruby. Plus, building scientific computing libraries is good fun. Every community should have the chance. As Abe Lincoln suggested, 'Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself.'

Is it so terrible to want to do science in the language you most enjoy and are most comfortable with? To continue with the maladroit quoting of Abe Lincoln, "it's best to not swap horses when crossing streams."

I made the point further down, but will restate it: if ruby hadn't persisted in existing (the nerve!), would django exist today? I find it hard to believe that this is a zero-sum game, and I wish python and scipy every success. Perhaps the most valuable scipy contribution we could make will come by making sciruby something worth borrowing ideas from?