On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 5:25 PM, Ryan Lane rlane32@gmail.com wrote:
How many languages can we reasonably support? We're currently using PHP, Python, Java, OCaml and Javascript (and probably more). Should we also throw Ruby in here as well? What level of support are the Selenium tests really going to get if they require developers to use Ruby?
I was initially pretty skeptical on the Ruby choice, and I'm not going to say that I'm sold yet. However, the part of Chris's proposal that's most persuasive to me is the fact that Ruby/Selenium seems to be the most built out, with the largest community. In particular, RSpec seems to be a rather important piece of all of this.
I decided to see if there was a Python equivalent of RSpec, and as often is the case these days, the exact question was asked on Stack Overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7079855/are-there-technical-reasons-a-rub...
In short, Ruby lends itself to that kind of thing a lot more.
In reading the Stack Overflow thing, I was reminded of a talk I saw a couple of years ago titled "Python vs. Ruby: A Battle to The Death" http://blog.extracheese.org/2010/02/python-vs-ruby-a-battle-to-the-death.htm...
...which, as it turns out, specifically talks about RSpec.
Anyway, the point that I'm making here is that it's quite possible that Ruby really is the right tool for the job. Since I'm much more comfortable with Python than Ruby, I'd be much more comfortable if we stuck with Python. Sticking with Python may mean a lot of wheel reinvention to accommodate language orthodoxy which really kinda sucks.
I'd like us to test the assertion that the Ruby/Selenium combination is much more mature than the Python/Selenium combination, but if that's true, then I think we may want to suppress the anti-Ruby bias and figure out how we can work with Ruby/Selenium.
Rob