[Ace26]

I know most of you out there are having the same gut feeling about ruby/rails and PHP like myself, so i'll just break the silence anyway.

The rave around these days is ruby/rails and seemingly less of PHP for web development. So I ask, is ruby/rails gradually pushing PHP off when it concerns web development?

[Atli]

Ruby on what now?

(... Sorry, couldn't help myself. Interesting question though. If you're right, it may be worth looking into.)

[baavgai]

Hardly. Ruby on Rails is totally the fad of the past. It had it's shining moment and now reality is setting in.

Ruby is a fun language, but Rails is just a framework and frameworks become a hindrance when you want to move outside the box. I found the environment to be wonderful for common tasks, a challenge for more custom requirements, and ultimately a mess.

Articles like this are common: http://www.oreillyne...ack_to_p_1.html

PHP is also a mess, but it's a very flexible and permissive one. I sincerely doubt PHP has anything to worry about.

[Ace26]

baavgai, on 25 April 2011 - 05:37 AM, said:

Hardly. Ruby on Rails is totally the fad of the past.

Fad of the past? With the rails fever spreading around like wild fire of late, I doubt that!

baavgai, on 25 April 2011 - 05:37 AM, said:

Articles like this are common: http://www.oreillyne...ack_to_p_1.html

Uhm baavgai, a lot of water has gone under the brigde since that article was written like rails 3.

Quote

#6 - I LOVE SQL
Speaking of tastes: tiny but important thing : I love SQL. I dream in queries. I think in tables.
I was always fighting against Rails and its migrations hiding my beloved SQL from me.

Ok, that fellow and I are on the same boat on this one.

baavgai, on 25 April 2011 - 05:37 AM, said:

It had it's shining moment and now reality is setting in.

What reality if I may ask?

This post has been edited by Ace26: 25 April 2011 - 06:35 AM

[JackOfAllTrades]

Where's the evidence of Rails fever? Two - three years ago I would agree with Rails fever, but I've got to say the fever pitch I saw then has died down considerably.

The current fad appears to be NoSQL.

[baavgai]

I'm not bashing Rails. I'm just telling you that the hype is over. I'm sure it's supporters won't let it die, but you're not seeing evangelists singing praises like you did five years ago.

Twitter uses rails. I think this interview probably did a lot to derail the bandwagon.

Quote

If you’re looking to deploy a big web application and you’re language-agnostic, realize that the same operation in Ruby will take less time in Python. All of us working on Twitter are big Ruby fans, but I think it’s worth being frank that this isn't one of those relativistic language issues. Ruby is slow.
-- http://www.radicalbe...per-alex-payne/

The Register, in 2008: http://www.theregist...uby_dead_alive/

A response to one of the hyper promoters: http://bitworking.or...n-Ruby-on-Rails

More recently, from respected sources like Dr. Dobbs:

Quote

... Ruby, which — surprise, surprise — declined year over year. I don't have any insight into this save to wonder whether the Ruby on Rails (RoR) jubilation has passed into a period of more sober assessment of technology.
-- The Rise And Fall of Languages in 2010
-- http://drdobbs.com/tools/229100358

Even found a hate site: http://ihaterubyonrails.com/

[Curtis Rutland]

@Ace26, it sounds like you came to a conclusion before you asked the question.

I'm with baavgai. RoR isn't going anywhere, but it isn't going anywhere. To explain that, it's not going away, but it's not sweeping the web anymore either. A few years ago, all I was hearing about was RoR; how it was taking over, how everyone was going to be using it soon. And then...everyone's still using PHP, JSP, ASP.NET, etc..., along with RoR.

Just for the hell of it, spend a few days looking at the PHP forum here, then jump over to Ruby. See which one is more active, and by what margin. Hint: it's PHP, and by a good chunk.

[Ace26]

Congratulations fellows you just succeeded in pulling one of the rails band wagon.

Rails book for sale anyone!

C#, PHP, i'm so sorry for flirting with ROR, can you find it in your heart to forgive me?

[Shane Hudson]

To be honest, I have spoken to a lot of people in the commerical field lately and almost all of them are using Python (with Django) rather than PHP or Rails (or even ASP.Net.. but not really a surprise there). So I decided to give it a go, and it really is great. After using it you can see that PHP is quite a mess (although I am sure it will be a long time before it is no longer a vital language).

[TMKCodes]

Myself I am not going to give up PHP ever. I just can't stop loving it's flexibility even though it can be somewhat a mess.

[Curtis Rutland]

Quote

Congratulations fellows you just succeeded in pulling one of the rails band wagon.

None of us are trying to bash you or convert you. Do what works for you. We just don't think that RoR is still the wave of the future like you.

You're the one that started with the assumption that we all agreed with you.

Quote

I know most of you out there are having the same gut feeling about ruby/rails and PHP like myself

This is what happens when you assume things. Sometimes you're wrong, and you can either learn from it, or get sarcastic and pissy.

Quote

C#, PHP, i'm so sorry for flirting with ROR, can you find it in your heart to forgive me?

I guess you took the second option.

This post has been edited by Curtis Rutland: 25 April 2011 - 03:35 PM

[Ace26]

Curtis Rutland, on 25 April 2011 - 04:33 PM, said:

None of us are trying to bash you or convert you.

I know. That's not the impression I got from all you guys have had to say, if that's what you think. It's just that I thought the ROR fever had known some revival again of late by virtue of all the buzz it's generating around me here. Hence, I decided to weigh your opinions on the matter and based on that I decided to stick with my old reliables(C#, PHP).

Quote

This is what happens when you assume things. Sometimes you're wrong, and you can either learn from it, or get sarcastic and pissy.

Quote

C#, PHP, i'm so sorry for flirting with ROR, can you find it in your heart to forgive me?

I guess you took the second option.

Where's your sense of humour, friend?

[Curtis Rutland]

Deadened by all the people I've worked so hard to help in the C# forums that can't/won't/don't learn anything. Maybe I just am too literal some times.

On the side of C#, check out ASP.NET MVC 3. Excellent architecture makes this actually fun to work with, and, god help me, the new view engine (Razor) actually reminds me of PHP in some ways.

[baavgai]

Curtis Rutland, on 25 April 2011 - 11:34 PM, said:

check out ASP.NET MVC 3. Excellent architecture ...

Which was driven by the popularity of, and based on... wait for it ... Rails. Also, with even less subtlety, Groovy on Grails.

If you like Ruby, Rails is your choice. If like other languages, there are other choices. Basically, if you really like Ruby, you'll make it work.

I find Python and Ruby are very similar in the type of problems they excel at. I'm afraid I prefer Python. I used Python web frameworks when they sucked. I'm happy they're getting better. By all reports, Rails is getting better.

Use what you like, just don't be deluded by the hype.

[Raynes]

Ace26, on 25 April 2011 - 09:09 PM, said:

Congratulations fellows you just succeeded in pulling one of the rails band wagon.

Rails book for sale anyone!

C#, PHP, i'm so sorry for flirting with ROR, can you find it in your heart to forgive me?

Just because Ruby may not be taking over the world any time soon doesn't mean it isn't a fun language to use. Regardless of how popular it is in comparison to megaframeworks on megalanguages, it is *still* popular in it's own right. Lots of people use it and plenty of those people use it on huge sites. Just because they don't use it on virtually every site doesn't mean it's worthless.

Ruby is certainly not a dead or dying language. Check out stuff like JRuby, Mirah, and Rubinius for examples of continued evolution in the Ruby community.