Converted /documentation/ruby-from-other-languages/to-ruby-from-perl/ to markdown.

Author: postmodern

documentation/ruby-from-other-languages/to-ruby-from-perl/index.html

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+---
+layout: page
+title: To Ruby From Perl
+---
+
+Perl is awesome. Perl’s docs are awesome. The Perl community is …
+awesome. However, the language is fairly large and arguably complex. For
+those Perlers who long for a simpler time, a more orthogonal language,
+and elegant OO features built-in from the beginning, Ruby may be for
+you.
+
+### Similarities
+
+As with Perl, in Ruby,...
+
+* You’ve got a package management system, somewhat like CPAN
+  (though it’s called [RubyGems][1])
+* Regexes are built right in. Bon appétit!
+* There’s a fairly large number of commonly-used built-ins.
+* Parentheses are often optional
+* Strings work basically the same.
+* There’s a general delimited string and regex quoting syntax similar to
+  Perl’s (looks like `%q{this (single-quoted)}`, or `%Q{this
+  (double-quotish)}`, and `%w{this for a single-quoted list of words}`.
+  You `%Q|can|` `%Q(use)` `%Q^other^` delimiters if you like).
+* You’ve got double-quotish variable interpolation, though it `"looks
+  #{like} this"` (and you can put any Ruby code you like inside that
+  `#{}`).
+* Shell command expansion uses \`backticks\`.
+* You’ve got embedded doc tools (Ruby’s is called rdoc).
+
+### Differences
+
+Unlike Perl, in Ruby,...
+
+* You don’t have the context-dependent rules like with Perl.
+* A variable isn’t the same as the object to which it refers. Instead,
+  it’s always just a reference to an object.
+* Although `$` and <tt>@</tt> are used as the first character in
+  variable names sometimes, rather than indicating type, they indicate
+  scope (`$` for globals, <tt>@</tt> for object instance, and
+  <tt>@@</tt> for class attributes).
+* Array literals go in brackets instead of parentheses.
+* Composing lists of other lists does not flatten them into one big
+  list. Instead you get an array of arrays.
+* It’s `def` instead of `sub`.
+* There’s no semicolons needed at the end of each line. Incidentally,
+  you end things like function definitions, class definitions, and case
+  statements with the `end` keyword.
+* Objects are strongly typed. You’ll be manually calling `foo.to_i`,
+  `foo.to_s`, etc., if you need to convert between types.
+* There’s no `eq`, `ne`, `lt`, `gt`, `ge`, nor `le`.
+* There’s no diamond operator. You usually use <tt>IO.*some\_func*</tt>
+  instead.
+* The fat comma is only used for hash literals.
+* There’s no `undef`. In Ruby you have `nil`. `nil` is an object (like
+  anything else in Ruby). It’s not the same as an undefined variable. It
+  evaluates to `false` if you treat it like a boolean.
+* When tested for truth, only `false` and `nil` evaluate to a false
+  value. Everything else is true (including `0`, `0.0`, and `"0"`).
+* There’s no [PerlMonks][2]. Though the ruby-talk mailing list is a very
+  helpful place.
+
+[1]: http://docs.rubygems.org/ 
+[2]: http://www.perlmonks.org/