IS RUBY ON RAILS FOR REAL

Filed in archive Application Development on September 19, 2005

I keep reading about the relatively new language Ruby and its web framework Rails but I haven't felt compelled to try it out. However, after reading David Geary's recent post titled Tipping Rails. I'm going to give it a try.

David writes:
The context in which we currently find ourselves in the Java community, I believe, is a strong factor in tipping Rails. Java caught on like wildfire because it was a simple alternative to overly-complex C++. But that was 10 years ago---today the context is quite different. Java, especially enterprise Java, has grown into a complex behemoth that consists of layer upon layer of complexity. As Jason Hunter asserts in his blog, Java, like C++ 10 years ago, has opened the door to simpler alternatives. And no other alternative in enterprise computing has nearly as much mindshare as Rails.

...

So, you might wonder: why is someone who was on the JSF Expert Group and co-author of the best-selling book on JSF publicly singing the praises of Rails? Is he nuts? Doesn't he realize that he may be hurting sales of his own book? Does he believe that JSF is junk that will be usurped by Rails? Of course not. I am a Rails convert, because first and foremost, I am a maven. I love to learn, and even more, I love to teach. And I absolutely love to learn new technologies. I also abhor bigotry, of any type. I love Tiles, but I love SiteMesh too, for example, and I have a hard time understanding why this is such an either/or world. I believe that both JSF and Rails have their place. JSF is better suited to conservative organizations with complex needs and Rails is better suited to folks who are willing to take some risk and whose needs are not as complex. And at the moment, I'm having the time of my life working on the 2nd edition of Core JSF with my good friend Cay Horstmann while I develop a kinship with my newest co-author, Bruce Tate as we work on a Rails book for O'Reilly.

With all the new Java frameworks and APIs appearing everyday I have enough learning to keep me me busy for a long time. However, I think I'm going to finally make time to play with Ruby on Rails. It never hurts to have another tool to use.

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Response from: Dennis Warner (11/10/05 2:01pm)

Quote from post:
"I keep reading about the relatively new language Ruby . . "

Actually, the language Ruby, which came out of Japan, is over 10 years old.

"The language was created by Yukihiro 'Matz' Matsumoto, who started working on Ruby on February 24, 1993 and released it to the public in 1995."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_programming_language

But Ruby on Rails (RoR), which is just a litte over a year old, has really started to make it popular.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_on_rails

Response from: Jason Darrow (11/10/05 7:26pm)

In the post I wrote "keep reading about the relatively new language Ruby and its web framework Rails" and your right that it sounds as if I was saying Ruby was a new language. I knew Ruby had been around for at least 5 years but not exactly how old it was originally. In the post I was referring to Rails. When I write posts I try and be as factually and grammatically correct as I can but sometimes I need to stop rewriting and revising and let the chips fall where they may. Sorry about the misunderstanding Dennis.