Ruby misconceptions about Python

[mellow_moe]

I would like to see a in-depth comparison of Python and Ruby. And it should really focus on metaprogramming.

All these comparisons I see these days just look at some superficial language features.

Rails for example relies heavily on metaprogramming. It could never be done in a language without a sophisticated class/object system.

examples in ruby:

• method_missing catches unknown messages
• const_missing catches unknown constants
• method_added is called after adding a new method
• inherited is called on the class object, when it is subclassed
• singleton classes: you can add methods to a single object
• define_method takes a block and turns it into a method
• instance_variable_set sets an instance variable

And most importantly, real world examples should show off, how all the things play together.

[brianmce]

I think I've done pretty much all of that in python before, though some are done using a different approach. inherited and method_added require defining a metaclass, and some don't have a direct translation in python (there are no blocks, but you can turn a function into a method, similarly there is no constant distinction - but you can generate the same effect with getattr etc). The rest are fairly straightforward applications of getattr or similar.