[Elihu5991]

Is Ruby a suitable language for developing highly detailed and interactive web applications?
Thanks in advance.

[Martyr2]

There are many sites that are sophisticated running on Ruby. Ruby for Rails is a framework that many work with and have built tons of interactive web applications on. Of course it is suitable.

[Lemur]

Rails is, in my opinion, one of the most elegant ways to build dynamic sites. It's Active Records library is one of the most useful innovations in databases, allowing you to abstract from defining a class for each table and column in a database. It takes you away from the nightmare of having to write code that really should be defined by the database itself.

That level of abstraction helps build prototypes far more rapidly than in PHP or other web based languages.

Combined with the power of metaprogramming elements, Rails is a force to be reckoned with. Consider this one, you can use the method .find_all_by_name even though it doesn't exist, and it'll still return results for all entries using name. Take it one step further, you can dynamically call a string/symbol that matches a method name as a method, allowing dynamic dispatch of methods.

Imagine the infinite possibilities with this much potential power and more.

Really, you would have to start reading to find all of this out, but it is most certainly worth the time.

[Elihu5991]

How about a site that is practically a desktop app in a browser. It's powerful and does quite a bit of calculations and things.

Everything you've told me is very lucrative! Does Ruby have its own database? How fast is it?
Can you showcase some apps?

[Skaggles]

Twitter uses Ruby on Rails. Basecamp, Github, Hulu, Campfire... these are just a few of the websites that use Ruby.

As for a database, Ruby can use pretty much any database you prefer.

This post has been edited by Skaggles: 17 August 2012 - 10:37 AM

[Lemur]

Elihu5991, on 17 August 2012 - 05:50 AM, said:

How about a site that is practically a desktop app in a browser. It's powerful and does quite a bit of calculations and things.

Everything you've told me is very lucrative! Does Ruby have its own database? How fast is it?
Can you showcase some apps?

The beauty of Rails compared to PHP is that Rails is extremely closely related to its base in Ruby. Ruby is used for anything from scripting to full scale development. The limits of your potential are quite literally your imagination. If you feel like it, you can redefine String or Object itself just for kicks. That's the type of power you get.

Check my post on 'Why Ruby?': http://www.dreaminco...87949-why-ruby/

...and then look into ORM (ActiveRecord, Sequel, etc.) and cry from the beauty of not having to map objects full of hyper-redundant code for database interaction.

[Elihu5991]

What would those apps be like if they were developed in anther language? I've Ruby is quite slow since it's a interpreted language. What many uses do interpreted languages have if each computer/use employing must have the language installed? Is Ruby On Rails the only way? Does PHP have it's own and is it worthit? Those apps presented are quite impressive and I'm well acquainted with them.

[Lemur]

The entire Ruby is slow farce was derived from early versions, and such issues have been fixed by now.

...you do know PHP is interpreted right? ...and Python, Perl, or any other scripting type language.

Compiled vs Scripting is a long one to get into, but in general I would not bother with the difference in speed.

[Elihu5991]

Yes, I am aware

How come I shouldn't bother? That makes all the difference with user experience.

[Lemur]

The purpose of the web is to be dynamic, flexible, and easily adaptable. Interpreted languages fit into this scheme of thinking.

Compiled languages are designed to be static, rigid, and fast.

Choose your side, but compiled on the web must not be getting very far if most of the major players are going interpreted.

[Elihu5991]

Oh yes, the players know what they're doing Most have generally chosen wisely.

So Ruby can pretty much do anything on the web?

[Lemur]

A programming language is a programming language. Every language can do multiple things, it's just how it does it.

Rails is a very good base for rapid development. Some of the high points are ActiveRecords, ORM, Scaffolding, Rake Files, and modes.

[Elihu5991]

I know that. But programming languages are developed for a reason. I'm trying to understand and discover Ruby's true capabilities.