Well, it’s more of a comparison than an actual battle. In comp.lang.python (Newsgroups? How charmingly retro!), Python guy Alex Martelli compares the two languages and says that their similarities outshine their differences:
Below a thin veneer of syntax differences, I find Ruby and Python amazingly similar — if I was computing the minimum spanning tree among just about any set of languages, I’m pretty sure Python and Ruby would be the first two leaves to coalesce into an intermediate node:-).
Martelli says that comparing Python to Ruby is like comparing capelli d’angelo (that’s Angel-hair pasta) to spaghettini (that’s “really skinny spaghetti”).
Of course, saying that two programming languages are very similar is a very good way to incite a flame war. Quick, Robin, to the flame-mobile!
...and by that, I mean, being completely ignorant of the larger world outside the U.S.…
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The cover painting says it all.