Data Processing
Polyglot: When Ruby isn't enough or even sane
Polyglot: When Ruby isn't enough or even sane
by Blake MizeranyThe video titled "Polyglot: When Ruby isn't enough or even sane" features speaker Blake Mizerany at the GoGaRuCo 2010 event. The main topic revolves around the importance of being a polyglot developer and not restricting oneself to a single programming language, particularly Ruby. Mizerany emphasizes that while Ruby is a versatile and powerful language, it has limitations and is not the perfect tool for every problem.
Key points discussed include:
- Definition of a Polyglot: Mizerany redefines the term to include anyone proficient in multiple programming languages, highlighting the necessity of thinking beyond just one language.
- Limitations of Ruby: He outlines various areas where Ruby struggles, such as CPU concurrency, systems programming, and complex data tasks, suggesting that overreliance on Ruby can lead to inefficient solutions.
- Diverse Programming Languages: Mizerany discusses several other languages like Erlang, Go, C++, Node.js, and Perl, comparing their strengths and weaknesses relative to Ruby in metrics such as concurrency, agility, and task suitability.
- Learning from Other Languages: Mizerany stresses the value of learning from different programming communities and languages. Engaging with various programming paradigms can provide new perspectives and solutions to problems.
- Practical Strategies: He advocates for practical engagement by experimenting with different languages, such as porting existing Ruby code to another language to understand its idioms and features thoughtfully.
- Community Engagement: Mizerany highlights the importance of staying connected with the programming community through platforms like IRC, mailing lists, and meetups to continuously learn and share knowledge.
In conclusion, Mizerany's message is clear: developers should embrace a polyglot mindset, continually expand their toolset, and recognize the appropriate use cases for different languages. By doing so, they can remain effective and innovative in their programming practices, avoiding the pitfalls of sticking solely to Ruby or any single programming language.
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This is a bit of an interactive presentation, so I'm going to ask for some of your help. But we'll get to that in a minute. I am here to talk about polyglot.
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How many of you have heard this term before? All right, cool. Sweet. Jim gave away half of my presentation during his keynote, so I'd like to extend a thank you to him. This means I can cut this a little bit shorter.
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Can you guys hear me okay? This is not the right... you know what, boom.
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So, polyglot. I am going to hurt some of your feelings. There will be a lot of "what is this guy talking about?" as I go on.
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But anyway, you can follow me on Twitter; I'm B Mizerany, and I'm on GitHub under the same username.
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As Josh mentioned, I work at Heroku. How many of you know who Heroku is? How many of you have A/B deployed on Heroku? Yes, all right, and yes, we have a read-only file system.
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So, I'm here to talk about how to be a polyglot. How many of you know what the definition of a polyglot is?
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Okay, cool. As for the term, a polyglot is a person who speaks several languages, so you can kind of get a sense of what I'm about to talk about.
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But I'm going to elaborate on this definition just a little bit more. Since we are all engineers here, the term needs to be changed to include 'a person or machine who speaks several languages.' I also want to focus on the word 'several' because I've struggled with the difference between 'a few' and 'several' in definitions. I looked it up, and 'several' means 'more than two or three.' Let me give you a real-world example.
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As you can see this fine specimen, it's part Ewok, part Great Dane, and part Jedi.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the rare and elusive Jadena Walk. That's polyglot!
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Okay, this is the interactive session. Every time you see this slide, I need everyone to yell 'polyglot.' All right, that was lame.
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So, Unix itself... how many of you use Unix, or are on Macs or FreeBSD, whatever? Unix is polyglot.
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You are all in this audience, except for you in the back with the Java one polo. Polyglot!
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Let me give you a more complete example. How many languages do you see here?
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Three. All right, I'm going to break it down for you; there are actually four.
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Let's take a look. First, we have an interactive Bash. Most people don't realize or remember that when you're in a console, you're programming; you're doing it interactively.
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Then we have Perl. For those of you who don't know about it, Perl is amazing. If you don't know about it, go to bettergre.org, and it will blow your mind.
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This is Ruby meta. I'm using a Perl script in Bash to look for Ruby code.
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And VI. I use VI. VI is written in C and runs Vim script. So, we have five languages here that are running together to produce a result and work out a problem.
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Let's take that, flip it, and reverse it, going from the inside out. If you're going to do polyglot, a very simple, basic example is something like Ruby.
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With Ruby, I can take input from a stream, massage it, manipulate it, run calculations, and print it back out.
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On the business end of my application, something can take that, massage it, and move it back out again until it's complete.
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It typically ends up somewhere, usually on standard output or on a web server.
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With all that being said, this isn't hard. So, why am I talking to you? Because everybody takes their favorite language and turns it into one big hammer, and everything becomes a nail.
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They decide, 'Oh, I've learned Ruby; it does everything. It's a general-purpose programming language, so why would I ever want to do anything else?' I'll let the other guys use Perl; I don't have to learn it.
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That's fine; I'll just use their code. But it's a very romantic view, hiding it in their code base and never having to see it.
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But the problem is, when you get these hammers, you start to feel like this with any language. At some point, as you mature, you realize that every great tool has a dark side.
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What you really want is many hammers; you need a lot of them. Going back to the definition of 'several,' it isn't that you want many; you just need more than two or three.
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A lot of us in the Ruby community do Ruby and JavaScript because we are writing a Rails app, and then on the client side, we're using JavaScript. That's about as far as we get.
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But it is important to go out and learn new things. My message to you is: don't do everything in Ruby.
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I'm sorry if this upsets you, but let me give you some reasons.
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I can already hear you in IRC right now, making fun of me and calling me silly names, so let me get through the reasons.
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The first reason is that you want to learn how others think. When you're in Ruby, we all tend to think alike.
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For instance, you hear people say, 'Oh, go use RSpec, go use test development.' Yes, of course, that's a great thing. But other languages may implement things differently.
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Some might say, 'I'll make a function for that instead.' This can be interesting because it exposes you to different paradigms.
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When you start learning how others think, you see their paradigms, views of the world, and how they tackle problems.
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Sometimes they are solving the same problem you are trying to solve, but in a different way. This new perspective can be enlightening.
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From talking with people in different languages, the words they use are significant. When they start using terms you're unfamiliar with, it can completely change your understanding of a problem.
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This is one of the biggest benefits of engaging with different programming communities. No language is a perfect ten across the board.
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Let's break this down into a chart, which I'm trying to fit into a big enough font for everyone. Here we go.
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The first cell is language, followed by CPU concurrency, IO concurrency, agility, IMHO systems, web, and text mining.
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In my opinion, Ruby scores as follows: CPU concurrency gets a low score.
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I am talking very low here; maybe a one out of ten. For IO concurrency, I give it a four.
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Ruby does have good IO concurrency if you're using threads or if you use an event machine, which I give a seven.
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How many of you have used EventMachine? Yeah, EventMachine is awesome!
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But it provides a very nice form of concurrency where we're not blocking on IO anymore. We can start doing CPU-based tasks instead.
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As for agility, Ruby scores a nine. I love how quickly I can crank things out with Ruby. However, sometimes it can get in the way.
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At Heroku, I work with systems programming. I need to communicate with the system and do things that Ruby does not support well.
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How many of you have dealt with pipes, PIDs, or any system calls in Ruby? It starts to get really gnarly and complicated.
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Eventually, I have to start moving away from Ruby in those areas and switch to something else.
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As for web development, Ruby gets an eight. We have Sinatra. Can I get a big round of applause for Ryan too back there, who made Sinatra happen?
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Doing command line work with Ruby is generally pleasurable. Op-parser is great.
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If I need anything more than that, we have plenty of libraries available. Ruby has pretty good CLI support.
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But for text mining, I would rate it a seven. How many of you have done text mining or tried to dig through logs?
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If you have millions of hits, you might as well start a screen session and prepare for a long haul.
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Now, let's move on to Erlang. How many of you have used Erlang?
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We have a few hands. Erlang scores an eight for CPU concurrency.
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Although some might want to give it a nine, it can be exhausting on the CPU and doing a lot of unnecessary copying.
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The IO concurrency in Erlang is fairly high.
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But agility? I'm giving it a five. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to crank something out within an hour in Erlang.
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It's not easy. There's a lot of setup and overhead to get started.
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As for systems work, Erlang has none. It’s worse than Java. It’s horrible—there's no POSIX system support.
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I can't use Erlang for most of the tasks I handle at Heroku, although I sometimes wish I could.
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For web development, if you're doing API stuff or creating a basic web service, it's much better than a four.
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But for overall web development, it's quite low due to issues with templating and basic business logic.
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The CLI is horrible, and text mining is pretty bad in Erlang.
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Now, how many of you have been using Go? I hope to see more hands next year!
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Go is pretty amazing! I would rate it a nine on CPU.
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IO concurrency is fantastic; it has an asynchronous feel where it acts like it's blocking but isn't.
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System support is quite high, doing great things for POSIX system support.
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However, as a web language, it isn't very mature. There isn't much built into the core packages yet.
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The CLI is quite nice, but for text mining, I would rate it a four.
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Now, let's move on to C++. I'm giving it a similar score but slightly higher on agility. The agility in C++ is better due to the presence of garbage collection.
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Node.js... how many of you are doing Node.js? Right on!
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Node.js is high for IO concurrency but low for CPU since it runs single-threaded.
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The agility is quite high because, after all, it is JavaScript.
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System support is really high, however it falls low in the web category.
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For text mining, it actually performs great.
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Next, let's talk about the JVM. It's been a while since I've worked with it, but I recall it being low across a lot of metrics.
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The system support is pretty low, and it can be bulky.
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As for Perl, it's my go-to for heavy data mining and text files. I love how well-suited it is for these tasks.
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Yes, you can write very beautiful Perl! I've seen some amazing examples.
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Let’s talk about being a polyglot. It’s pretty straightforward: you are capable and knowledgeable.
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A seasoned polyglot speaks the native language and keeps up with its culture.
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Just because you learned a couple of languages quickly doesn’t mean you can stop paying attention.
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To keep that fresh in your mind, you want to remain engaged in communities.
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You can do this in IRC, mailing lists, documentation, or bars with others.
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For those interested in functional programming, there's a group called 'Functioning Alcoholics' in San Francisco.
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They meet once a month and do many interesting things, making it valuable to be around them.
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Be sure to borrow from different religions of programming but stick to your own.
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You need to embrace the community norms without losing your own identity.
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By maintaining more tools in your toolbox and keeping up with them, you can code effectively under limited resources.
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You may only have VI and a C compiler, but you have the skills to get something done quickly.
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Sometimes you may only have Perl installed, and you need to adapt.
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So, what does this look like? It means you need to know the best and simplest tools for the job.
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You seek knowledge about new ideas and old ideas. I’ve found myself often flipping through an O’Reilly book out of boredom.
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Then I remember something I had forgotten while relying on big libraries.
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Seeking out knowledge of new programming languages, I often share my enthusiasm with others.
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I often hear people say they read the docs but don’t see a problem that needs solving.
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In reality, most of the problems you solve in Ruby can also be handled in another language.
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The first step I take in learning a new language is to port something I already know into that language.
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You see this a lot when Node.js came up; many tried to clone Sinatra.
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It’s simple and provides basic principles that are easy to understand.
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For instance, have any of you ever written a Redis client just for fun? I highly recommend it.
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I’m not saying to build your own for production, but it’s a nice experiment.
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Writing a simple protocol helps you gain insights into how things work.
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Another experiment could be porting a basic Reddit server using Node.js.
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This is a great exercise for grasping networking, protocols, and data structures.
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As you do this, read through mailing lists and keep learning.
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It’s valuable to read the documentation every day to keep it fresh in your mind.
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Being in IRC can also be beneficial, but keep in mind it can be distracting.
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You can ask questions or find help about various issues you're facing.
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Once you've ported something to their idioms, you'll want to try it in their idiomatic way.
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This requires embracing common practices and paradigms in this new language.
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Ask questions, get feedback from those experienced, and learn why this approach is used.
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It's like when you first learned Ruby: digging into libraries and asking questions is how we all learned.
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Asking clarifying questions is an excellent way to dive deeper into a language.
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After a while, help others who are coming into the community.
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By answering their basic questions, you strengthen your knowledge and gain their gratitude.
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As you work with more languages, you may notice your original code begins to look different.
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Interoperability is critical; watch out for integration issues that can arise.
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Remember when CORBA created challenges in connecting multiple languages?
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Realize the difficulties in making these languages talk to each other without compatibility problems.
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Be aware that many attempts at standards—like SOAP—have fallen short of expectations.
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However, JSON today is a simple and widely used standard with enormous support.
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Its simple language and human-readable structure make it much easier.
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When sending JSON over the wire, most languages have a built-in decoder, which makes life easier.
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Yes, it has its downsides like not being binary safe and less efficient with wire.
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But you must consider the trade-offs before deciding on the solution.
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In addition, learn other formats like BSON and REST, which simplify concerns around data formats.
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REST is also very powerful, but not every language has support for more advanced features.
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Older clients may not handle the latest requirements, but new ones often support them.
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Be cautious of schemas and formats to follow for effective communication.
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You will avoid becoming locked into an unsuccessful approach.
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Remember the lessons from the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
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What I want to emphasize is that collaboration and learning from each language is vital.
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As you grow and gain experience, transfer the knowledge from one language to another.
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Seek simplicity and efficiency in your data exchange formats.
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If it cannot be easily decoded, seriously consider whether you should use it.
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Lastly, keep learning, reading, and repeating what works.
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Thank you!
