[CathySF]

Back to coding after 12 year absence (C++) should I get into Ruby on Rails or Javascript? I am looking for any and all advice on this. Thanks!

[modi123_1]

What are you looking to do with either?

[Atli]

If your goal is to design interactive websites, then you'd do well to learn both. They are both very useful for that kind of development, but each serves a very different purpose. I'd start with Rails though, as that is the server-side language that drivers such applications. Javascript is used to enhance the client-side UI (the HTML and CSS.)

On the other hand, you could use something like Node.js instead of Rails, which would allow you to do the server-side coding in Javascript as well. It's very different though, and in my opinion not really as refined as the other popular server-side languages.

If you've got experience with C++, you may also be more comfortable using Java or PHP on the server-side. Those use C style syntax. Ruby is great, but it's syntax is very different.

[CathySF]

CathySF, on 12 September 2012 - 02:05 PM, said:

Back to coding after 12 year absence (C++) should I get into Ruby on Rails or Javascript? I am looking for any and all advice on this. Thanks!

I coded for over 10 years, moved to development & project management and never kept my toe in the code. Perhaps I should have always kept a small project in the works. Looking to start off simple and then do basic UI controls, database, fundamentals of login and security and yes, basic websites.

[Lemur]

I would definitely avoid node.js like the plague. Javascript and PHP are both patchwork languages made to serve a purpose and were thrown together as necessary, making them the spitting image of Frankenstein's monster.

Ruby was designed with the principle of least surprise, that it should just work. Rails extends this philosophy, and develops a few more things by making assumptions.

I can make a blog in just under 20 minutes in Rails, such a thing would be masochism in php, even with frameworks (that I've used.)

Ruby will make you love programming all over again, its elegance and simplicity are refreshing.

[Sergio Tapia]

I also love Ruby, but I'm kind of offput by Rails. Too much magic going on behind the scenes - I just haven't grokked it yet.

Out of curiosity, what PHP frameworks have you used in the past that you think are "masochism"? I used both CakePHP and Kohana and both are real simple. Dead simple in fact, just as Rails or ASP.Net MVC3. (I've used both those as well)