[rahoulb]

With Ruby I feel (feel being the operative word) like I’m free to get the computer to do what I want and create something that looks good and makes me happy.

But in other languages I immediately feel cramped and constrained - and the code looks ugly to my eyes.

As for correctness and quality, number one is it has to fulfil the business requirements I’m being paid for (and I’ve shipped lots of crappy code that I’m ashamed of but the clients are very happy) and secondary, I like to look back at it and see something elegant that also looks good in an editor.

Of course, the definitions of elegant and “looks good” are the real questions here.

[preseinger]

yep! and i have almost exactly the opposite experience!

with ruby i feel (same caveats) like there is so much ambiguity that i can't build a coherent and predictable mental model of my program -- it makes me feel anxious and unsure

what you characterize as "cramped and constrained" i probably experience as "precise and unambiguous" -- it makes me feel calm and in control

no judgment from me about which of these perspectives is better or worse, i don't think there is any way to say that, just want to point out this interesting difference in perspective among practitioners