Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 112 posts

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#41

Post by waxman »

For someone who isn't a serious programmer but is looking to prototype a business idea, I think Ruby/Rails are more user-friendly than Python/Django.

- Rails deployment and hosting are super simple with Heroku (http://heroku.com), which, again, I think is more user-friendly than the Python equivalent (Google App Engine)

- There are some excellent free resources out there (check out http://railscasts.com, http://guides.rubyonrails.org/, and http://railslab.newrelic.com/scaling-rails)

- There is a very vibrant community of plug-ins (gems)

Honestly, I think that getting a book (try this one: http://pragprog.com/titles/rails4/agile-web-development-with..., 4th edition), and then simply practicing will get you up and running faster than a course.

Also, now is a good time to get into Rails, as version 3.0 has just came out.

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#42

Post by CoachRufus87 »

learn rails. during this process, you'll pick up on the ruby that you actually need to know, vs learning ruby and then learning rails. i learned rails over the past year and now have a number of apps running in production for clients.

http://railstutorial.org/ taught me rails. (along w/ stackoverflow.com)

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#44

Post by lowkey »

zedshaw wrote: post #13

I'd say, learn Python or Ruby, doesn't matter, but try them both for a few days. One will click and the other won't. If you go the Python route, I've got a free book I'm working for beginners that might be too beginner for you: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ But I reference two other books on that page which actually could be a good start for you. After that, check out the Django book: http://www.djangobook.com/en…

I second the suggestion of trying out both Ruby and Python. Both languages are modern and agile but with distinct styles such that one will likely fit your brain better than the other.

Also, regarding Python web frameworks, I would highly recommend looking at Web2Py over Django for your needs (something that gets you up and running with a minimum of fuss) Web2Py is supposed to be more Rails-like than Django which might be a good thing in your case. (Also, check out Cube2Py for something to look forward to: http://vimeo.com/13154869)

Disclaimer: I am of a similar background (Engineer/MBA/Entrepreneur looking for a platform to rapidly prototype ideas) For folks like us, scaling can wait until you validate the idea and confirm that a real market exists, then you can raise capital and add real developers to help you scale.

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#45

Post by brianto2010 »

acpigeon wrote: post #40
brianto2010 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah. It's a Ruby/Rails combo. You should have mentioned that. The curriculum looks awesome: a lot of skills are introduced. However, the curriculum looks very Rails centric rather than Ruby (the language) centric. If you're going into website creation (and it looks like you are), go for it!

Indeed that's the plan. I guess everything I've heard about Ruby/Rails was about the combo so I thought they went together as a matter of course. Amiright?

Well shiver my timbers! I didn't know that. :-)

Anyways, good luck!

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#46

Post by rufugee »

As someone who has done 4 years of Rails development and has recently switched to Django for new projects, I can tell you it would be worthwhile to learn both. Ruby and Rails are great most of the time, and the Ruby way of doing things is a great learning experience.

That said, I threw my hands up after running into multiple libraries duck punching (monkey patching) ActiveSupport into a mangled, conflicting mess one too many times. The open classes thing really is harmful, no matter what anyone tells you. It's a feature that, when used with care, can be very powerful...but the problem is in my experience it's not used with care very often in the Rails world.

I've heard Scala solves the issue with open classes by keeping things in context with the code that surrounds it, but I personally haven't verified it. Besides, that's not what you asked.

Here's a metaphor that I really feel holds true: Rubyists are magicians...Pythonistas are masons. If you have to rely on your own code only, then by all means delve as deep into magic as possible. However, if you have to rely on other's work, the mason's approach is much more intuitive, reliable, and safe.

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#47

Post by mlinsey »

acangiano wrote: post #37
noahc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What things would change if you went the python route? Ruby = Django Rspec = ???? Is that it?

Ruby -> Python Ruby on Rails -> Django Git -> Mercurial (Hg) RSpec -> Django's built-in testing

Why Mercurial? Most Python projects I've used are on git.

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#48

Post by [deleted] »

acangiano wrote: post #30
mrduncan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The largest websites/web applications in the world are built in Rails much more frequently than in Django. While we're calling each other out for citations, that's an awfully big statement to make without citations as well. Let's just put it this way: Both frameworks power large sites, you pretty much can't go wrong with either.

> While we're calling each other out for citations, that's an awfully big statement to make without citations as well. I made the statement because I'm ready to back it up. Among the most popular 1000 sites on the web, you will find at least a dozen Rails sites [1]. There are extremely common names like Twitter, Hulu, Scribd, Justin.TV, White/Yellow Pages, Urban Dictionary, etc. How many Django sites do you see in th…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#49

Post by [deleted] »

zedshaw wrote: post #13

I'd say, learn Python or Ruby, doesn't matter, but try them both for a few days. One will click and the other won't. If you go the Python route, I've got a free book I'm working for beginners that might be too beginner for you: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ But I reference two other books on that page which actually could be a good start for you. After that, check out the Django book: http://www.djangobook.com/en…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?

#50

Post by acpigeon »

rufugee wrote: post #46

As someone who has done 4 years of Rails development and has recently switched to Django for new projects, I can tell you it would be worthwhile to learn both. Ruby and Rails are great most of the time, and the Ruby way of doing things is a great learning experience. That said, I threw my hands up after running into multiple libraries duck punching (monkey patching) ActiveSupport into a mangled, conflicting mess one…

That's a helpful metaphor. What I'm looking for is a framework that can be used for rapid prototyping, and it sounds like rails fits the bill.
Post reply on HN