Rethinking my programming strategy

Ever since I did my last burst of Ruby programming a week ago, I've been trying to figure out where I want to go with Ruby and Web programming in general. The truth is that I'm hitting a few roadblocks that are rather frustrating. I still find the Ruby syntax cleaner than any language I've used since dBASE. On the other hand, the available Ruby libraries are not as robust or mature as Python or Perl. This is a particular problem with XML parsing. I didn't expect this when I started programming again last fall, but since almost all of my programming has been with RSS, OPML, API calls, I'm extremely dependent on REXML, the XML parser built into Ruby. I've been hitting bugs and weirdnesses with REXML, and after emailing the author 3 times over the last 2 months, I've still not been able to get a response. On the other hand, I'm now getting to know a lot of Python programmers. There is even a Python programmer in Seattle who keeps emailing me, offering to build RSS and OPML libraries to do whatever I want.

I knew Ruby had fewer libraries than older languages when I started using it, but I assumed I would just write my own libraries to do whatever I wanted. That's what I've always done in the past. The other thing I've discovered in the last few months is that I'm going to have less time to code than I originally expected, so building libraries for things like XML parsing are not likely to happen. Actually my whole approach to programming is going to be different than I had expected. Instead of getting more and more proficient in one language and tackling all kinds of tasks, I now see that I will be focusing on RSS, OPML and API calls for possibly a few years. It might make more sense to see how this is done with many of the available languages, such as Perl, Python, PHP, and Javascript. Instead of becoming a language expert, I'd now rather become a domain expert.

This decision is also dependent on ideas I might have for writing books. I really enjoy that process, and know that a good book can be a valuable aid to developing my new career as a tech blogger. Instead of writing a Ruby book someday, it now seems more likely that I'll want to write an RSS and OPML book, which means I may want to be able to discuss techniques in multiple languages.

I haven't made up my mind yet. I'm going to spend a few days playing with Python and looking at other XML solutions for Ruby. Who knows, maybe someone will tell the author of REXML to answer my email and tell me how to keep it from choking on ampersands.