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

Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 160 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#61

Post by kenhwang »

irvingprime wrote: post #57
mountainriver wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a company with a large Ruby monolith and it’s a disaster. If you’re face deep in the Ruby ecosystem then I’m sure it makes sense, but trying to build services alongside it is truly awful. You want a scalable system that’s easy to write and will grow with you? Write basic Go services.

Rails does not have to be written as a monolith. Typically, junior programmers who are trying to move very fast do that. Most of the places where I have talked to people who have a monolith are looking for ways to split it into services. If you wrote a system in Go as a monolith, it would be hard to trim down, too. Architecture matters MUCH more than the implementation language.

Not sure Go is a very good example here, compiled languages have a huge maintainability advantage in monoliths (at the cost of compile time).

Ruby/Rails' culture is a huge contributor to why Rails monoliths are so much more difficult to maintain compared to other dynamic languages. Things in Rubyland just love to be global and manipulate things globally and go out of their way to make that behavior hidden.

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#62

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

If you're just starting out, I wouldn't go with Rails. Get really good at Typescript and React instead if you like the front-end, or Node or Golang on the back-end.

Although it's a hard choice because the books and documentation and training resources are great in Rails, so easier to level up, but I don't think that's where things are going anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#63

Post by irvingprime »

digisign wrote: post #34

Ruby has been on the downswing for a while, getting squeezed from all sides from the meteoric rise of Python on one side, JS/Typescript on the other, to higher performing static languages on another: https://octoverse.github.com/#top-languages-over-the-years It also has a funky syntax, while not a big deal, doesn't do it any favors in a C --> Javascript world. Django, golang, etc. are free. I don't recommend starting…

Your comment about "funky syntax" is meaningful.

I have found that people from the world of Java and similar c-style syntaxes, and especially strongly typed languages, have a sort of allergic reaction to Ruby. The reverse is also often true.

This is a matter of personal preference that actually tells nothing about what any of those languages might be good for.

Ruby/rails is less popular than it once was but it's still pretty popular. It's worth considering if you are open to the style of programming it uses. But if you love the c-style syntax, yes, you'll have problems getting used to Ruby and should try something else.

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#64

Post by irvingprime »

newaccount74 wrote: post #16

I think it depends on the region. I started a project in Rails, and when I tried to hire people to help I found out there are very few people in my city who know anything about Rails. It's all Python and Java here. So I'd recommend to look for job ads on local platforms and check if companies are looking for rails devs.

Funny. I got my first full time programming job because they really wanted to do a project in Rails but there wasn't anybody else in town who knew anything about it!

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#65

Post by swat535 »

If you Think Github, Gitlab and Shopify are relevant, then yes. Ruby on Rails remains an excellent technical choice for mature products.

Note that, just like any other tool it has pros and cons, one should analyze the system requirements and use whatever makes sense. I would however, dare say that it is a great fit for majority of businesses.

Honestly, majority of frameworks out there today will get you 90% of the way: Rails, Laravel, Phoenix and Django just to name a few.

As I get older, I tend to prefer boring tech myself..

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#66

Post by sergiotapia »

I hardly get any job listings from recruiters using Rails tech stack these days. Nothing compared to 7 years ago.

These days it's mostly Javascript, Go, some Kotlin.

Regardless I work in Elixir because they can pry BEAM out of my cold dead hands. And Liveview is inspiring all other frameworks to build similar tooling that is unfortunately second-best because Elixir and Erlang's BEAM are so well suited to it's workflow.

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#67

Post by ghotli »

dsl wrote: post #54
ghotli wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But hiring engineers isn't constrained by region or location so this feels like an odd argument to me. Rails has been around long enough that there's surely no shortage of junior to very very senior engineers that will write code for you from wherever they happen to live.

Programming is not tied to geography unless you are dealing with physical equipment (you probably don't want three grocery store self checkout machines in your living room) or have any sort of security requirements for the project.

I get the argument for sure. Neither example is a really good environment for choosing rails specifically.

Also, not that it really matters but I just happen to be a counterpoint to both examples. I'm at home surrounded by hardware for my current work and also wrote / led a remote team instrumental in passing a federal banking audit atop infrastructure as code.

I'm on team sure there's use-cases for local hiring but they're so hard in the minority these days + it's a rails thread that I felt like my stance in my prior comment probably did hold in all cases where that might be the right tool for the job. Like all things though, it depends. :)

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#68

Post by namelessoracle »

derwiki wrote: post #10
MattGaiser wrote: post #3

I had a call with a recruiter a few months back who said that the highest commissions were for Rails devs.

More so than React Native?!

React Native devs are gonna probably get paid in Equity.

Contracted Rails devs are probably working on an enterprise product that is already mature and making money.

Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

#70

Post by philwelch »

gls2ro wrote: post #60

For people in this thread comparing _Rails_ with _Go_ can you please help me understand something about Go: Is it a language that also has in std/core library web framework like support? Like PHP? I ask as I dont understand why people say drop Rails and learn Go. And I am looking to learn a new language along with Ruby and Elixir. Why is Go compared with Rails and not with Ruby? If Go does not include a default suppo…

The Go standard library has all you need to stand up a basic HTTP service. Which isn't the same as Rails by a long shot, but it does fit in well with what a lot of places are doing these days.
Post reply on HN