[MacRuby-devel] Tyro Needs Ruby vs. O-C Advice

[Rich Morin]

I'm not a MacRuby or ObjC expert, but here is my
understanding.


> What are the advantages of MacRuby over Objective-C?

MacRuby is a variant of Ruby, so it's an interpreted,
concise, dynamic language.  Objective-C is a compiled
language based on C (with a lot of run-time support).

So, a MacRuby program will generally be shorter than
the corresponding Objective-C program and may be able
to do tricks (eg, using metaprogramming) that the ObjC
program cannot.

That said, an Objective-C program can do anything that
a MacRuby program can, though generally with quite a
bit more code.


> What are the advantage of O-C over Ruby?

MacRuby has JIT (Just In Time compilation), so it will
speed up over time.  ObjC is a compiled language, so it
runs fast from the beginning.


> Is Xcode's support for O-C significantly better than
> its handling of Ruby?  Do I care?

Sorry, I don't know.


> At this point I'm primarily interested in OS X development,
> but iOS clearly needs to run a close second.  What's the
> current status of Ruby development for iOS and is it likely
> to go anywhere in the nearish future?

Ruby expects a garbage collector to be available.  iOS does
not supply one, so that's currently a show-stopper.


> Any thoughts on the longer-term prospects of either language?

ObjC is only used (to a first approximation) by Apple and folks
who are programming for Apple environments.  Ruby is a popular
web development language and it can also be used for general
scripting.

I don't see either language going away any time soon, but Ruby
is a more portable job skill: there are lots of companies who
who hire Ruby programmers; there are far fewer companies who
hire ObjC programmers.

-r
-- 
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm            Rich Morin
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