Having The Right To My Opinion
I want to return to my DB4O/scripting languages experiments, but getting the kids back in school has eaten into my time. However, I have been playing with Ruby on Rails.
I have this to say about my choice of RoR for a small personal project:
- I feel compelled to learn how to use this framework because it is popular
- Many of the jobs I see posted these days mention Ruby on Rails; therefore, I want to have bragging rights.
- There is a growing number of books about this framework, which makes it a good choice if I want to find someone to maintain my code later.
- The Ruby on Rails community is very active – there are many available articles, tools, plugins and extensions.
- Clients like new technologies, but not too new: RoR is a good choice. It is new enough to be cool, and established enough to have credibility.
- An old fart like me has to show that he is keeping up – learning new things is important.
Having said all of the above, I prefer Python to Ruby. It is a matter of taste, but Python is cleaner and easier for me to write. There is something about the culture of Python that I am more comfortable with. Therefore, I am more attracted to Turbogears. However, I think it will be worthwhile to earn the right to my opinion by learning how to use RoR first. Then I will be able to comment with some authority.
On the other hand, I could change my mind, but I doubt it. However, I am sold on the basic approach that is taken by RoR. I just do not feel that the approach depends on Ruby to work well. For a humorous look at RoR, see this video that contrasts Ruby on Rails with traditional PHP.