Ruby Class

class Person
 
	def initialze(firstName, lastName, age)
		@firstName = firstName
		@lastName = lastName
		@age = age
	end
 
	def IntroduceYourself
	    response = "Hello, my name is " + @firstName + " " + @lastName
            response = response + ", and I am " + @age + " year(s) old."
            return response
	end
 
end

Ruby Implementation

dan = Person.new("Dan", "Appleyard", 27)
puts dan.IntroduceYourself

My Thoughts

Rubys seems similar to Python. Since I liked Python, I like Ruby. At this point in my limited knowledge of these languages, I don’t really see the differences between Ruby and Python. My final examination will be that of Java.

PHP Class

firstName = $firstName;
		$this->lastName = $lastName;
		$this->age = $age;
	}
	public function IntroduceYourself(){
		return "Hello, my name is $this->firstName $this->lastName, and I am $this->age year(s) old.";
	}
}

?>

PHP Implementation

IntroduceYourself();
?>

My Thoughts

I’ve had some minor experience with PHP before in the past. Nothing really to write home about. PHP is fine I guess, reminds me too much of C and C++ for some reason. I’m really looking for a language that I can do both in and out a web environment. PHP is just web. As of now, PHP is slighly over Perl and under Python. Tomorrow I will go over Ruby.

Python Class

class Person:
	def __init__(self, firstname, lastname, age):
		self.firstname = firstname
		self.lastname = lastname
		self.age = age

	def IntroduceYourself(self):
		return "Hello, my name is " + self.firstname + " " + self.lastname + ", and I am " + str(self.age) + " year(s) old."

Python Implementation

dan = Person("Dan", "Appleyard", 27)

print dan.IntroduceYourself()

My Thoughts

Very different than Perl, wouldn’t you agree? Seven lines of code to create the same that class that took 17 lines in Perl. I kind of like it. Indentation is key with Python. Tomorrow, I am going to go over the same class implementation in PHP. Until tomorrow then!

My Control Class

I started out creating a basic VB.NET class – a Person class that simply introduces itself:

Public Class Person
   Private FirstName As String
   Private LastName As String
   Private Age As Integer
   Public Sub New(ByVal firstName As String, ByVal lastName As String, ByVal age As Integer)
      Me.FirstName = firstName
      Me.LastName = lastName
      Me.Age = age
   End Sub
   Public Function IntroduceYourself() as String
      Return "Hello, my name is " & FirstName & " " & LastName & ", and I am " & Age & " year(s) old."
   End Function
End Class

My Control Implementation

Dim dan As New Person("Dan", "Appleyard", 27)
Console.WriteLine(dan.IntroduceYourself())

I will compare this to each of the languages I will investigate. Now the Perl code!

Perl Class

package Person;

sub new
{
    my $class = shift;
    my $self = {
        _firstName => shift,
        _lastName  => shift,
        _age       => shift,
    };

    bless $self, $class;
    return $self;
}

sub IntroduceYourself {
	my( $self ) = @_;
	return "Hello, my name is $self->{_firstName} $self->{_lastName}, and I am $self->{_age} year(s) old."
}
1;

Now I am not going to explain every line in this code, just know that with my limited knowledge of Perl (as of now), this is how you make a class in Perl.

Perl Implementation

use Person;

$dan = new Person ("Dan", "Appleyard", 27);

print $dan->IntroduceYourself();

My Thoughts

Defining a class in Perl is quite different than VB.NET, wouldn’t you agree? What is with this $shift? What is the heck is this bless? If I decided to do Perl first, these are things I am going to have to pick up. Tomorrow, I am going to go over the same class implementation in Python. Until tomorrow then!

Now the original question has changed from “what language should I learn” to “what language should I learn first”.  Some would say that since I know C# Java would have the easiest learning curve.  I don’t know quite yet.  What are the pros and cons of each language?  Each day this week I will talk about one language and go over the pros and cons of learning it.  These will be MY pros and cons – not the standard pros and cons of each language. 

Tomorrow – Perl!