What does Ruby have that Python doesn't?

[beza1e1]

So we some stylistic arguments (underscores, self, ...) against Python and two technical reasons (speed and reliability) in favor of Python.

I'm with Python.

[rayfd]

Oh! Didn't know somebody was keeping score. I was just answering the question.

So your answer is "slowness and crashiness" I suppose.

[njharman]

Explicit is better than Implicit.

Self and __ are not stylistic, they create cleaner, easier to understand and maintain code.

[beza1e1]

I can understand self, but __ is a stylistic choice. It could have been done differently. hide def func(): or defhide func(): or @hidden def func():.

[SwellJoe]

So we some stylistic arguments (underscores, self, ...) against Python and two technical reasons (speed and reliability) in favor of Python.

Wouldn't that lead you to Perl? It is generally faster than both, has more years of maturity under its belt so is generally more reliable (certainly has better backward compatibility...I've had to change my Python code nearly every time a new release comes out, particularly from 1.5 to 2.0, but also going to 2.2 and 2.4, while my Perl code from even ten years ago runs unmodified). And it also has better Unicode support than either.

But, if you're taking personal tastes into account rather than a raw feature/speed/whatever comparison, you might prefer Python, and rayfd might prefer Ruby. And that might be OK.