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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

That's ambiguous, 'new' could mean that someone has knowledge of the other. So if everybody here already know Rails then their 'new' language preference would automatically have to be python.

Also, you're comparing a framework and a language, a better comparison would be python with ruby or django with rails...

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my fault...I meant it more as in if you didn't know either...which would you go with

I know it's a bad comparison, but that seems to be what most people pick from...since ruby almost always is picked with RoR

I wouldn't trust a vote on this. Some voters will have no clue and just vote based on gut feeling and PR. Some will know Python, like it and vote for it based on that. Others will dislike and vote for RoR, without considering what they would do when they hadn't yet learned they disliked it, etc.

Knowing what I know today, I would probably try my luck with Python, as I've too often been bitten by Ruby's lack of properly documented, stable libraries. However, I think I would miss the power of Ruby's easy metaprogramming facilities. Clojure comes to mind as a third option...

"lack of properly documented, stable libraries"

o_O, example?

I've often turned to Ruby due to it's awesome documentation and actively developed gems.

Ruby is not almost always picked with ROR, ROR is built on top of Ruby so it cant be used without it. There's an inherent flaw with comparing a framework with a language: You're removing the people that use Ruby without ROR but with other frameworks (be it because they use Merb, Sinatra, or w/e) from the voting. Also, I find Hacker News generally tips on favor of Python, I might be incorrect though.

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