Quote Originally Posted by sept View Post
Imagine you are Mozilla. Could you switch programming language to ruby?
Well, I wouldn't if I were Mozilla because C++ has a larger user base and I could count on more people contributing to the code. Not to mention the fact Mozilla background and history is based on C and C++. It would be silly of me to pretend that much.

However, say, a browser fully developed in Ruby capable of rivaling Firefox wouldn't shock me. The gecko engine is not a sublime piece of engineering. Far from that. I would wager Presto to be a superior engine (not to mention it's the only of the current 4 big ones that passes the Acid2 tests). And even if a browser/engine developed in Ruby was slower than Mozilla, but far more standards complaint and offering a richer functionality, wouldn't that be better?

Again, ask yourself: How slow is slow? Say, 2 seconds extra, average, taking to load a page is unacceptable? Maybe for some. But it's not a reason to dismiss this language as a potential tool for just that if it happens I'm more proficient at it.

Count two seconds in your head. Does that time span shock you? What if I told you the next computer processor would reduce that to just 1 second? And the next one to half a second?

Well, I am mostly interested in applications for end users.
Well, you should always learn more than one programming language. It's a matter of common sense. Even C or C++ aren't the best choices for some programming tasks. It will also give you more power over problem solving since you'll be the proud owner of more than one programming tool.

As you well put it, it annoys you the fact C++ seems to overly complicate certain programming tasks, like that of developing for a GUI. It's not its fault really... it's the GUI API that complicates your life. But aside from that, what you should look at is spreading your knowledge through a few different tools and use the one that suits you best at the time.

If you are developing a universal measurements converter, does it really matter if Ruby is slower than C++? Other things will instead come to your mind, like how fast can I do this in C++ or in Ruby? What language do I feel more comfortable programming with? Which one offers the least maintenance cost?