I'm looking to learn more about web software. I like the all in one approach of the Rails framework, but fear it may be losing popularity. Any thoughts? If you were to advise someone today what the best approach to learning web development would be, what direction/resource/book would you recommend?
Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
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Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#2If you want to
- be very employable => JS/Express/[a-myriad-of-other-things]
- be able to do anything (including trending AI/ML) => Python/Django (you won't be as productive as with Ruby/Rails and won't the same happiness experience [in regards to web])
- be very productive in Web env & enojoy your time => Ruby on Rails
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#3Depends:
* Do you like to be able to build things fast?
* Do you prefer not having to reinvent the wheel?
* Do you care if it's not the new hotness?
If you answered no to any of those, run away! Rails is mature-ish. It's boring now. Its ecosystem is stable. Your sanity won't be tested.
Reads...
* Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial is probably the book you'll want to read to get a simple grasp on Rails (it can be overwhelming).
* 99 Bootles, POODR (Sandi Metz)
* some RSpec book
* Finish it off with https://rebuilding-rails.com/
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#4Yes, of course it's still worth learning. Whether you learn Rails, Django, or anything else, the concepts will apply pretty well for any web framework.
I've been making screencasts for Rails developers at GoRails (https://gorails.com) showing how to build various features of websites in Rails.
If you're a beginner though, I would first recommend the Rails Tutorial - https://www.railstutorial.org/book
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#5Yes, of course it's still worth learning. Whether you learn Rails, Django, or anything else, the concepts will apply pretty well for any web framework. I've been making screencasts for Rails developers at GoRails ( https://gorails.com ) showing how to build various features of websites in Rails. If you're a beginner though, I would first recommend the Rails Tutorial - https://www.railstutorial.org/book
I mean, learning X is an opportunity cost. Not dismissing your answer, but I guess we could rephrase the question: "Is Rails worth learning instead of X", where X can be some other popular frameworks. Or said differently, both for newcomers or more experienced devs, why do you think Rails is worth learning instead of some other web framework?
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#6Wow. Really going for a trigger with the title.(you should get a lot of activity)
The answer that you will unconditionally see to this question will be "it depends"... I would get more specific with your question so that you can extract a bit of wisdom from the answers.
Rails is and has been a dominant web framework for the last ~10 years, dhh and the people working on it have crafted a wonderfully useful tool, with all sorts of lessons hidden inside the code. Ruby is a great language... and all of these things provide wonderful reasons to learn it.
With that being said, I don't use it anymore. and I'm not going to ever go back to it unless there something out of my control. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Do I recommend it? ... It depends
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#7Wow. Really going for a trigger with the title.(you should get a lot of activity) The answer that you will unconditionally see to this question will be "it depends"... I would get more specific with your question so that you can extract a bit of wisdom from the answers. Rails is and has been a dominant web framework for the last ~10 years, dhh and the people working on it have crafted a wonderfully useful tool, with…
Curious as to whether you have found a better Rails-type framework or have moved on to a different type of dev work that you prefer. Any recommendations?
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#8Yes.
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#9I used to be a Rails developer, but in today's JS ecosystem I've found most of it can be replaced by full-stack JS.
In particular with an EmberJS front-end if you like the EmberJS convention over configuration methodology.
Re: Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still worth learning?
#10I was just talking about this with my co-workers. Rails has so much built in and has been refactored and cleaned up so many times that, if you are just trying to build a web application with a reasonable authentication system, it's a great platform to know.
It's very fast to first real web app request (not just a hello world response) and many of the concepts will translate to another platform.