Ruby : What I liked
1. installed just fine on my Windows XP machine
2. It has interactive command-line interpreter and compile version (interpreter excellent for quick and dirty jobs as well as prototyping - where compile is considered extra step..)
3. Ruby is new and hot - there seems to be more momentum (Folks looking for the next big thing - after java)
4. Ruby seems to be small foot print and can be compiled on many platforms - portability
5. Ruby implements package management, RubyGems, to distribute components efficiently.
6. Ruby Application Archive (RAA) and RubyForge are repository focused on Ruby.
7. 'Ruby on Rails' is application framework
8. rake is the ruby build system available on rubyforge
Watir:
1. SilkTest and WinRunner rule the webUI funcitonal/regression testing/automation arena - for good reason. They both do a good job at what they claim.
2. The price is on the higher end for people who look for open source as their default search. Evaluation copy/free copy is not easy to get for small/'not so serious' players.
3. Available only for Windows and I belive only for IE.
4. Now comes the Watir, a framework running on Ruby.
5. Tried installing it and it went smooth.
6. Tried the google example - went very smooth
7. Tried Hotmail login that uses cross domain cookies - it just wouldn't work
8. Checking the forums - looks like if IE complains, Watir will complain too. But, this statement don't look right to me as IE don't actually complain (even though it is doing things that IE might not like...)
9. Willing to risk using Watir expecting it to mature eventually.