It seems that every where I am still seeing php GET variables in URLs (including on HN) and there is just so much support out there on the web for PHP. Big companies like Facebook and Wordpress still use it. Is Ruby on Rails really that valuable to learn?
Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
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Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#2I had my doubts about Ruby too, but we built the entire backend of our iPhone app (http://loqly.me) on ROR and our website is going to be entirely on ROR too. The amount of time it saves you as compared to any other language is nothing short of mind blowing.
Of course I am just sharing my 2 cents since you asked. Others could have a different experience. But we started out with php and 2 months down the line changed over to ROR and boy were we glad we switched!
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#3GET variables aren't unique to PHP. They're simply a means of passing data through on any HTTP GET request. HN itself runs on [Arc](http://arclanguage.org/).
To answer the question, Rails is certainly worth learning if you're interested in web applications development. It has, for better or worse, set the benchmark for interpreted MVC web frameworks, and a lot of the design decisions being made in other frameworks are heavily influenced by it.
(Also, it's fun.)
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#4GET variables aren't unique to PHP. They're simply a means of passing data through on any HTTP GET request. HN itself runs on [Arc]( http://arclanguage.org/ ). To answer the question, Rails is certainly worth learning if you're interested in web applications development. It has, for better or worse, set the benchmark for interpreted MVC web frameworks, and a lot of the design decisions being made in other frameworks…
Thanks for the link to Arc! I've heard it's fun, but for a newbie is it a concern that there is not as much support? I've heard there is maybe less quantity of support but the support online has more quality than php because of the quality of users.
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#5Facebook and Wordpress are using PHP, but they've put significant effort into overcoming its pitfalls.
You can do anything in PHP that you could do in a more modern framework (Rails, Pyramid, Django or whatever), but some things will be more effort --- in particular, keeping the codebase organized and well-tested as an app gets larger.
(Also, FWIW, Facebook's codebase isn't all PHP, and Facebook alumni don't always stick with PHP for their next ventures. For instance, Quora's using Python on the server side; apparently its founders see some value in the switch.)
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#6GET variables aren't unique to PHP. They're simply a means of passing data through on any HTTP GET request. HN itself runs on [Arc]( http://arclanguage.org/ ). To answer the question, Rails is certainly worth learning if you're interested in web applications development. It has, for better or worse, set the benchmark for interpreted MVC web frameworks, and a lot of the design decisions being made in other frameworks…
Thanks for the link to Arc! I've heard it's fun, but for a newbie is it a concern that there is not as much support? I've heard there is maybe less quantity of support but the support online has more quality than php because of the quality of users.
I don't know much about Arc, but my gut feeling is that it is not likely to be newbie-friendly, between the combination of it being somewhat esoteric and, you know, a dialect of lisp, which isn't exactly known for being all that friendly to the new programmer. :)
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the link to Arc! I've heard it's fun, but for a newbie is it a concern that there is not as much support? I've heard there is maybe less quantity of support but the support online has more quality than php because of the quality of users.
I don't know much about Arc, but my gut feeling is that it is not likely to be newbie-friendly, between the combination of it being somewhat esoteric and, you know, a dialect of lisp , which isn't exactly known for being all that friendly to the new programmer. :)
I was actually referring to RoR in regards to support concerns but I appreciate the arc response :). Still helpful.
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#8Facebook and Wordpress are using PHP, but they've put significant effort into overcoming its pitfalls. You can do anything in PHP that you could do in a more modern framework (Rails, Pyramid, Django or whatever), but some things will be more effort --- in particular, keeping the codebase organized and well-tested as an app gets larger. (Also, FWIW, Facebook's codebase isn't all PHP, and Facebook alumni don't always s…
Python is very fun and agile, however I was always under the impression it was also not meant for big projects as it is strongly not typed. Do you think Python is a great substitute or compliment to rails? What's your code of choice?
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know much about Arc, but my gut feeling is that it is not likely to be newbie-friendly, between the combination of it being somewhat esoteric and, you know, a dialect of lisp , which isn't exactly known for being all that friendly to the new programmer. :)
I was actually referring to RoR in regards to support concerns but I appreciate the arc response :). Still helpful.
Ah, sorry. RoR has a very vibrant and active community, and I don't think you'll have any problem finding help with it if you choose to go that route.
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails really worth knowing?
#10Facebook and Wordpress are using PHP, but they've put significant effort into overcoming its pitfalls. You can do anything in PHP that you could do in a more modern framework (Rails, Pyramid, Django or whatever), but some things will be more effort --- in particular, keeping the codebase organized and well-tested as an app gets larger. (Also, FWIW, Facebook's codebase isn't all PHP, and Facebook alumni don't always s…
Python is very fun and agile, however I was always under the impression it was also not meant for big projects as it is strongly not typed. Do you think Python is a great substitute or compliment to rails? What's your code of choice?
If you want to do a big project in Python, it's considered best practice nowadays to have a thorough test suite, in part to catch the sorts of goofs that the typechecker would otherwise tell you about (though a good test suite will do a great deal more than that).
However, Rails is a Ruby web framework; Python and Rails do not mix. The Python equivalents would be Django or, I think, Pyramid.