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Rails 7.1 Released

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Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#41
Don't get me wrong, I love Rails, and have been using it off and on since Rails 2.

It's a really good framework, and for someone like me who needs to stand up a website from time to time it really is the path of least resistance.

What bugs me is the pain of setting up a new laptop to run Rails. I need node, which means npm. I'm a backend guy, I don't understand how to set up node, what order to do things in, etc. I do it rarely enough that it always seems a fight. Eventually I get it done, but I'm never sure why it finally all comes together.

An installer that puts together all the requirements so my rails just works would be great. The rvm installer will set up rails on top of ruby but won't set up the node system underneath it.

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#42
post #2

Currently stuck on a fairly large code base on rails 6 with a ton of react and trying to upgrade to the new “non”-JS way with Hotwire. Wish me luck Rails is great when you stick with the defaults and a land of pain as soon as you leave them.

> Rails is great when you stick with the defaults and a land of pain as soon as you leave them. You just described every framework. Frameworks are great if your application is fairly simple and aligns with its way of doing things. Libraries are where to look if you need a more complex, flexible setup.

This distinction is frequently emphasized in online discourse, but I've never found it to be super useful. Pretty much everyone can agree that Ruby on Rails is a framework, while underscore.js is a library, but things get really fuzzy in the middle.

The usual explanation is inversion of control—you call into a library, but a framework calls you. But now that pretty much every language has closures, it's a lot harder to use that as a distinction: is React a library since it all starts with createRoot/render (you called it), or is it a framework because from that point on it's calling you? There are tons of people who are highly opinionated in both directions, which suggests that this dichotomy is artificial and doesn't reflect a deeper reality.

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#43

Don't get me wrong, I love Rails, and have been using it off and on since Rails 2. It's a really good framework, and for someone like me who needs to stand up a website from time to time it really is the path of least resistance. What bugs me is the pain of setting up a new laptop to run Rails. I need node, which means npm. I'm a backend guy, I don't understand how to set up node, what order to do things in, etc. I d…

Have you used nvm? It’s pretty painless in my experience.

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#44

Don't get me wrong, I love Rails, and have been using it off and on since Rails 2. It's a really good framework, and for someone like me who needs to stand up a website from time to time it really is the path of least resistance. What bugs me is the pain of setting up a new laptop to run Rails. I need node, which means npm. I'm a backend guy, I don't understand how to set up node, what order to do things in, etc. I d…

If you opt to use import-maps I think you can get away without needing node these days, though then you're using import maps and have to deal with that can of worms.

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#45

Don't get me wrong, I love Rails, and have been using it off and on since Rails 2. It's a really good framework, and for someone like me who needs to stand up a website from time to time it really is the path of least resistance. What bugs me is the pain of setting up a new laptop to run Rails. I need node, which means npm. I'm a backend guy, I don't understand how to set up node, what order to do things in, etc. I d…

thats the whole premise of rails7: dropping the node dependency...

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#46
post #38

Would anyone start a new project with Rails today? If someone suggested using Rails for a new project to me today, I would show them the door. There are so many more mature frameworks in more robust and performant languages. IMO the only reason to use Rails today is if you’re too uncurious to learn something better.

Please name a few with the same comfort of having most things built-in. One example: database migrations. In the JS world it is knex all over and it is much less comfortable than ActiveRecord.

Phoenix

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#47

Would anyone start a new project with Rails today? If someone suggested using Rails for a new project to me today, I would show them the door. There are so many more mature frameworks in more robust and performant languages. IMO the only reason to use Rails today is if you’re too uncurious to learn something better.

Why not? I have seen or worked on too many projects that would have been better off using Rails/Laravel/Django instead of whatever cobbled together mess was chosen instead.

Not saying that those are the best choice under all circumstances but they certainly aren’t wrong.

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#49
post #2

Currently stuck on a fairly large code base on rails 6 with a ton of react and trying to upgrade to the new “non”-JS way with Hotwire. Wish me luck Rails is great when you stick with the defaults and a land of pain as soon as you leave them.

> Rails is great when you stick with the defaults and a land of pain as soon as you leave them. You just described every framework. Frameworks are great if your application is fairly simple and aligns with its way of doing things. Libraries are where to look if you need a more complex, flexible setup.

I don't know. I've always found that Symfony in PHP is pretty flexible with its setup. I feel the complexity to be proportional to how far off the beaten path I'm going. I've heard that Spring is also like this.

Re: Rails 7.1 Released

#50
post #17
post #9

Rails on the backend doesn’t get the credit it deserves. On the front-end it’s been a mess for a really long while now though

I agree. What are options here? Rails in API-only mode?

I think that’s pretty much it for big apps if we go with batteries included. Only Java frameworks compare on that front and if you’re a Ruby guy you likely don’t like Java.

I’ve been liking Golang but I haven’t had a job that used it in a while. Who knows what’s it’s like right now

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