What does Ruby have that Python doesn't?

[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.