I can READ other people's Python code with greater ease than Ruby, Java, C#, C++ or even C. At the end of the day, the quicker I can assimilate library code the quicker I can use it well and the quicker the module gets completed and fully tested. Of course, with Google and Eric Raymond raving about it, the confidence factor increased further.
It is true that Ruby gives you a lot of rope. People with good design sense appreciate that your code should not be too clever.
Just which Ruby community is this? None that I associate with, that's for sure.
To the people who voted the OP up; is it because of your own first-hand experience with other Rubyists? For all I know there are clusters of Ruby coders who encourage obscurantism, but I've not encountered them (though I've been part of debates over just what constitutes "obscure").
<pre> Weighted use of Search Term Hits Search Term Hits obfuscation
"obfuscated perl" 1390 "perl programming" 164000 0.85% "obfuscated python" 234 "python programming" 157000 0.15% "obfuscated ruby" 269 "ruby programming" 133000 0.20% </pre>
If I use the word golf, I get: <pre> Weighted use of Search Term Hits Search Term Hits golf
"perl golf" 1780 "perl programming" 164000 1.09% "python golf" 171 "python programming" 157000 0.11% "ruby golf" 547 "ruby programming" 133000 0.41% </pre>
This is of ccourse, the same statistics that fueled the last financial meltdown :-)