Ruby on Rails

[emurphy1]

Hey web developers...what do you think of Ruby on Rails? I've installed it on my OS X desktop and found it remarkably easy to install. Next I ran through a simple demo and was amazed at how easy things are. Check out the 15 minute video on, http://rubyonrails.com, and watch the guy build a blog with only 58 lines of code. Amazing!

Now I read this article, http://news.com.com/Ruby+on+Rails+chases+simplicity+in+programming/2100-1007_3-5920169.html?tag=cd.top, and discover that David Geary one of the leading JSF experts says that Ruby on Rails is 5-10 times faster than Java web applications I'm even more inclined to use Ruby on Rails for the next project.

Thoughts, comments, experiences with Ruby on Rails??

[jharriso]

I know that the popular web comic Penny Arcade is running Ruby on Rails. They say it's the largest implementation, traffic wise, of RoR so far.

[Tyler Coles]

I have done a little bit of research into RoR, and most of the experts I ran across suggest that while it is faster in development and (possibly) in run-time execution for smaller projects, that it loses out in the long run to Java (or, dare I say it? .Net) when it comes to larger, enterprise-wide applications. (Go Beans!)

I don't have any personal experience with it, but like any other scripting language I'm willing to bet that RoR is more difficult to team-collaborate, modify, update, and maintain than OO languages.

To not sound like a Java-hugger, though, I am impressed by the claims of RoR developers.

[emurphy1]

RoR is definately not for large, enterprise web applications. It is not the best way to develop everything. For example, it is strictly an HTML rendering engine. If you wanted to render for something else, say WAP, you couldn't do it with RoR. It is good for simple, common web development tasks. That said there are some commercial companies building impressive stuff with RoR.


I don't have any personal experience with it, but like any other scripting language I'm willing to bet that RoR is more difficult to team-collaborate, modify, update, and maintain than OO languages.

You can make a project collaborative friendly with the right tools...regardless of the programming language. In OSCR we use Subversion to allow programmers to checkout a working copy of a project. They can then edit, test and commit from their development area. This allows different programmers to modify the same file at the same time.