The point of this rant is to annoy people share my experiences with Ruby.

As strange as it seems, I develop deep emotional relationships with programming languages. I love Python. I truly do. I totally irrationally hate Java (though I'm ok with JVM). 

Now, I like Ruby. 

Well, it has some little warts, but generally it is a very enjoyable language.

I didn't "get" Ruby for quite a long time because I tried to wrap my head around it from the wrong end. Ruby didn't like me, I didn't like Ruby -- it lasted until I realized a very simple thing: Ruby is not "like Perl".

The same happened many years ago with JavaScript. I disliked it so much so couldn't make myself write code in it. I hated it until it occurred to me that JavaScript is not "like Java". JavaScript is a Lisp in disguise. Once I realized that, I stopped worrying and quickly found myself in an intimate, romantic relationship with JavaScript. It is still one of my favourite languages.

Then came Ruby. I had to use it because it was a part of my job. At first Ruby felt like a Perl with broken legs. I tried to make it run and it crawled. I missed one important detail: it didn't have legs at all -- it got wings. Ruby flies.

Here comes my little revelation: Ruby is a Smalltalk. Ruby has much more in common with Smalltalk than with anything else. 

Actually it's a better Smalltalk. Since I realized that, I started to enjoy this beautiful language. Hey, peace and happiness -- welcome back.

Conclusion: it is often our own distorted perception that makes good things look ugly.

Rant mode off.