An inteview with Brian Kernighan, co-developer of AWK and AMPL

I recommend that Mr. Kernighan add Ruby to his list sooner rather than later. While it is true that "a language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing," nowadays, it's also true that "a language that can't be affected by the way you think about programming is not worth knowing." Ruby's power comes from its LISP-like flexibility, its expressiveness, and the power to make DSLs which cleanly map to the way humans should be thinking about programming in specific domains.

That power, and the joy of reading beautifully crafted code (which often require little additional commentary), make Ruby a aesthetic pleasure to work with, unlike the awkward hacks that similarly-capable Perl or Python programs force you to craft.

And anything you've heard about Ruby's slowness in the past is no longer the case with the latest optimized interpreters.

I'll offer an opposing point of view. As a Python and Ruby developer, I would say that there is no point in picking up Ruby if you already know Python. While Ruby offers 'prettier' code, Python has focused more on ensuring that it's parts are strong, and work well for edge cases. Ruby has focused more on what I call "happy path" development, where things work well, so long as you stick to the parts that the community widely uses. As an example, if you are using Mysql, everything is hunky dory, but if you use Postgres, the drivers suffer from neglect.

After spending a few years working on both daily, I think of Python and Ruby in terms of Beauty and the Beast. Ruby, which is pretty holds the role of Fair Is Foul, Python which is more functional but less pretty holds the role of Foul Is Fair

Security is overrated.
Ease

Security is overrated.

Ease of use, and performance trumps all.

Let me know when you manage to have a OS/Application/System worth a damn using anything else than C or a variant thereof.

The only problem with C, is that the world is full of programmers that are not fit to use a pocket calculator, not program a computer.

Get rid of the chaff, and the rest of us can manage to use C quite well, thank you.

And btw, "Technologist"? Go away kid!

@perl/ruby/python are similar statement.

No. Let's leave python forever as who since Stuart Feldmans's make utility ever considered whitespace operable? Unbelievable. Not worthy.

So this aside, how can you compare ruby and perl? By their literal names? I can't stand the Perl syntax but it truly is an art. Still not sure how ruby had perl in it's rearview mirror wity syntax and I find them grossly different. Ruby is bloated in solution context.

"Let me know when you manage to have a OS/Application/System worth a damn using anything else than C or a variant thereof."

Yes. Unisys MCP systems. For HLL implementation, they predate C and Unix by at least five years going back to the Burroughs B5000. All system software is written in Algol-like languages, not assembler (there is no assembler) with HLL syntax like C. Security is ensured at a low level since all bounds and buffer overruns and much more are checked and crash the program straight away, producing very readable stack dump, rather than going on and producing havoc. They have true virtual memory, built into the machine, not something kludged on top.

Many of the concepts from the B5000 have gone into today's software. Like systems programming in HLLs, virtual memory, OO programming, virtual machines, multiple processors, removal of Von Neumann bottleneck, etc, etc. But nothing was ever quite done as well, resulting in many of the current headaches of the computer industry, which Burroughs had mainly solved way back in 1965. C is really pretty flimsy and a poor variant of ALGOL for systems programming.

Great questions! You might also be interested in this interview with Brian Kernighan: he covers his personal history and the creation of the C book, and he offers advice to students, graduates, and retirees.
http://www.harmonyatwork.in/blog/2009/10/leap-in-and-try-things-brian-kernighan/