Perl is awesome. Perl�s docs are awesome. The Perl community is � awesome. However, the language is fairly large and arguably complex. For those Perlers who long for a simpler time, a more orthogonal language, and elegant OO features built-in from the beginning, Ruby may be for you.

Similarities

As with Perl, in Ruby,...
  • you�ve got a package management system, somewhat like CPAN (though it�s called RubyGems )
  • regexes are built right in. Bon apptit!
  • there�s a fairly large number of commonly-used built-ins.
  • parentheses are often optional
  • strings work basically the same.
  • there�s a general delimited string and regex quoting syntax similar to Perl�s (looks like %q{this (single-quoted)} , or %Q{this (double-quotish)} , and %w{this for a single-quoted list of words} . You %Q|can| %Q(use) %Q^other^ delimiters if you like).
  • you�ve got double-quotish variable interpolation, though it "looks #{like} this" (and you can put any Ruby code you like inside that #{} ).
  • shell command expansion uses `backticks`.
  • you�ve got embedded doc tools (Ruby�s is called rdoc).

Differences

Unlike Perl, in Ruby,...
  • you don�t have the context-dependent rules like with Perl.
  • a variable isn�t the same as the object to which it refers. Instead, it�s always just a reference to an object.
  • although $ and @ are used as the first character in variable names sometimes, rather than indicating type, they indicate scope ( $ for globals, @ for object instance, and @@ for class attributes).
  • array literals go in brackets instead of parentheses.
  • composing lists of other lists does not flatten them into one big list. Instead you get an array of arrays.
  • it�s def instead of sub .
  • there�s no semicolons needed at the end of each line. Incidentally, you end things like function definitions, class definitions, and case statements with the end keyword.
  • objects are strongly typed. You�ll be manually calling foo.to_i , foo.to_s , etc., if you need to convert between types.
  • there�s no eq , ne , lt , gt , ge , nor le .
  • there�s no diamond operator. You usually use IO. some_func instead.
  • the fat comma is only used for hash literals.
  • there�s no undef . In Ruby you have nil . nil is an object (like anything else in Ruby). It�s not the same as an undefined variable. It evaluates to false if you treat it like a boolean.
  • when tested for truth, only false and nil evaluate to a false value. Everything else is true (including 0 , 0.0 , and "0" ).
  • there�s no PerlMonks . Though the ruby-talk mailing list is a very helpful place. And we�ve also got a wiki and a faq .
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