This is supposed to be the next wave of web programming. I was trying to program a blog on PHP and got fed up.
Ruby on Rails isn't saving me development time (mostly because I don't know it well) but it's as simple or complex as you want it to be. I suppose if I ever learn it well it might be the thing to use.
I'd say the lack of diverse documentation is a minus.
Learning ruby is painless and very enjoyable, do it first, because RoR uses a lot of magic that will be difficult to understand at first. I recommend buying a rails book, you won't find enough to get started on the web. I used "Agile web development with Rails", but it lacked an intermediate-level tutorial (just a five-minute hello world, then straight to a large project, which didn't work for me because of a mysterious bug).
I made a toy RoR project and am making something serious with it now, and I am satisfied, it's probably the best you can have right now, just be careful of the people hanging out around RoR, they are friendly trend-whores who'll try to turn you into a lunatic.
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EleoChan2006-02-24 17:05
I stole that book, and yeah, I agree. I feel that the book is too linear; it's teaching you some concepts based on one narrow project instead of teaching you concepts so that you can apply them to a broad range of projects. It's decent enough, but I think the examples could be broader.
I actually want to make an imageboard with RoR, just to see what it would turn out like. (I know, the world has too many imageboards already.)
I could have just downloaded Typo for my blog, however I figured I'd learn more if I made one from scratch. Too bad I don't even know what a trackback actually is.
In all honesty I dislike the Ruby language; I have trouble reading and translating it. I will admit I am a Java dude. Ruby isn't a bad language at all, however, it's a lot different from what I'm used to. For example my mind is trained to end statements with a semicolon, so much that sometimes I end my sentences with semicolons.
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Anonymous2006-02-24 21:07 (sage)
I will admit I am a Java dude.
Poor guy. Honestly.
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Anonymous2006-02-25 6:39
>4
You are just writing Java in Ruby. It sucks whatever way you look at it. You shouldn't give up, once your mind starts thinking in Ruby you'll see the benefits, and even if you are stuck in Java after understanding Ruby, what you will learn will still be useful.
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Anonymous2006-02-25 7:02
It sucks whatever way you look at it.
It still suck less. Fucking hell, the amount of code necessary to make a class hierarchy in Java isn't funny. If it was twice as much, I wouldn't say anything, but it's at least 5x the amount. And that's just thanks to the syntax! Once you throw semantics in there, doom doom doom!
That's sick. No wonder Java coders take forever to achieve the simple.
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Anonymous2006-02-25 7:10
>>7
Hey, we are trying to save >>1 from Java. This is not the way to go, he probably is very afraid of leaving it, it's a form of mild Stockholm syndrome. We need to proceed slowly if we don't want to lose him.
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Anonymous2006-02-25 8:56
>>8
Okay, I was overly harsh. The order-of-magnitude difference in the amount of code is impossible to miss though.
Once you consider that the number of lines coders write per unit of time is fairly constant regardless of language (hello Mythical Man-Month!), you come to to inevitable conclusion that Ruby can make you an order of magnitude more productive. If you're dealing with vague specifications, it's a lot more than just one order, since you'll be building and throwing out code constantly.
If ever there was an argument for Ruby (or Python) over Java, this is it.
>>11
I think (s)he was trying to show how the seriousness of /prog/ threads has declined over the past 3 years. Could a new thread about Rails garner more than a little half-hearted meme spamming? I think not.
As said, learn Ruby first and all the clever things people typically do in it.
Rails is fine, and is far better than PHP in that you've got a decent MVC framework right there and Ruby's API (i.e. no giant namespace of stupid-ass functions). I am primarily a Java programmer, but have picked up and enjoy Lua/Ruby -- functional is a different way of thinking, but it's the languages I use for my personal projects. Ruby feels to me like a mix of Lua and Perl, but even more OOP-ified (good) and with a sizable backing API.
Rails cannot compare to ASP.Net/J2EE in object persistence. ActiveRecord is a bit too hacky for my tastes (for example, it is considered "okay" to use aggregate functions when setting the fields to retrieve when querying). That you can still perform SQL injection using parts of ActiveRecord shows it's just a slightly magical layer over SQL. Nice, but if I'm going to go to the pain in the ass of letting a pseudo-ORM system take over SQL duties that I don't mind, I want it to encapsulate it fully (see: Hibernate/JPA).
Can't seem to beat ASP.Net for RAD web apps... that pile of dorkturds is amazingly useful for getting stuff together and working fast (however, I have many reasons to hate it -- working around its stupid-shit GridView control, its impossible-to-use two-way bindable templates, HTML not being escaped by default in labels...)
blar bl blururrburlubqatb i liek talking aboot teh eterprise xD