Ruby: Why?

Why should a statistician learn/use Ruby?

• Data manipulation:
• Often data from colloborators isn't given in a format that can be read by statistical software packages such as R.
• Sometimes output from one software package is not in an accessible format.
• Learning how to learn: Being able to quickly learn new software, environments, languages is an important skill.
• Modern programming methodologies: Modularization, object oriented design, code reuse, etc. are very useful by not well illustrated in R.
• Simplicity: While we can learn a lot using Ruby without too much overhead, a whole semester could be dedicated to the ins-and-outs of a lower-level languages such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, etc.

What about other scripting languages such as Python, Perl, Lua, etc.?

• People's tastes differ, but Ruby is a very nice combination of ease and power. :)