The Digital Press

This article explores Ruby’s unique approach to loops, highlighting how Ruby embraces message passing inspired by Smalltalk, rather than traditional syntax-based looping as seen in languages like Python.

Why it matters: Ruby’s message-passing loop design promotes object autonomy and flexible behavior over rigid syntax.

The big picture: This philosophy encourages writing idiomatic Ruby code that leverages object protocols rather than relying on familiar loop constructs.

Quick takeaway: Ruby’s .times and .each methods are messages sent to objects, enabling rich, customizable iteration unlike Python’s attribute-based method calls.

Commenters say: Readers appreciate the deep dive into Ruby’s philosophy, contrasting it with Python, and enjoy the explanation of message passing and protocol over syntax.