Hi,

On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 8:43 AM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Not intending to start a language flame war/holy war here, but in the
> library coding community, is there a particular reason to use Ruby over
> Python or vice-versa? I am personally comfortable with Python, but I have
> noticed that there is a big Ruby following in Code4Lib and similar
> communities. Am I going to be able to contribute and work better with the
> community if I use Ruby rather than Python?
>

Well, one thing to keep in mind is that there isn't just one, monolithic
library coding community -- there's a bunch of them, albeit with a lot of
overlap.

If you want to hack on Koha or Evergreen, learning Perl would be a good
idea.  Vufind?  Better brush up on your PHP.  Digging into the guts of
Solr?  Java all the way.  Blacklight?  Hi, Ruby!

Unless you're starting a project from scratch (in which case go nuts (or
not, as you may be constrained by the platform preferences of your
employer)), often the right language is what everybody else is using _for
the projects you're working on_.  In other words, it pays to be flexible
and be willing to learn new languages.

Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
Manager of Implementation
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
email:  [log in to unmask]
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366
skype:  gmcharlt
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Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org &
http://evergreen-ils.org