Ruby Section

How about adding a Ruby section - it's becoming more prevelant.

I received a lead on a contract job a couple of weeks ago - on it was a request for someone with Ruby/Rails experience. I was like WTH is Ruby? Rails?

Short story is Ruby is a programming language and Rails is an application framework for implementing MVC applications in Ruby.

Very cool stuff, there is a lot of content and it seems like there might be some traction here. Check it out!

This is what the Other Programming Languages forum is for - if we get enough threads about it, then we'll split it off into another forum.

--Simon

OK we have edited the Other programming forum to include Ruby on Rails.

if it really takes off we will split it out into its own section.

j

Instead of "Other Programming Languages", maybe it should be "The Latest Fad Programming Language and Ones That Are No Longer Faddish But People People Keep Insist On Using Them Although They Are All The Same Really When You Think About It Except For The Syntax"...

or not...

---John Holmes...

Yeah that title might be a little long. Let's just Acronym it, just like everything else (:caugh: AJAX :caugh TLFPLAOTANLFBPPKIOUTATAATSRWYTAIEFTS. See how much easier that would be?

It does have a certain ring to it. Like the ring of a thousand telephones, fire alarms, cats and fingernails on chalkboards going off at once... I like it!

---John Holmes...

http://forums.devshed.com/suggestio...rum-344796.html

In the course of one day, we manage to get another request, probably from the same person...

Rails isn't really anything special, although IMO ruby is. As it is, there really isn't enough traffic to warrant it. That said, there isn't really enough traffic in the Mac forum (sadly ). There isn't really a convenient catch-all you can put it into though.

Edit: I doubt anyone's interested, but here is a thread discussing relative merits of various frameworks in various languages. Still looking for anyone who's used CakePHP to contribute.

Yeah I noticed that too. Probably from the same person because progrmr hasn't wrote back even though it's his thread. Interesting.

I really cant see any reason why this is a bad idea, people need to give it a chance.

After spending 2 days looking and working with ruby on rails, one of the major problems I have found is the lack of support / community and a shockingly poor API site. (Compared with php anyway)

From what I have seen, yeah its an interesting language, and its probably suited towards certain sites / systems than others. For basic database sites its fantastic for, could also make an excellent prototyping tool.

Lets give it a chance to succeed before completely writing it off as the latest trend that will die out very soon.

If you're determined to work with it, you need some books

For ruby - Programming Ruby. It's published by the Pragmatic Bookshelf here. I bought a copy, i don't regret having paid the amount I did pay for it (i got it in a bookshop, and paid over £40 for it). Get a copy.

For rails, well they have a book on rails, but I don't advise going that route. Compared to my current favourite framework, Django, it's grossly underfeatured, and as with all ruby, it suffers from crap documentation.

Basically, buying those books will try make up for the crap documentation ruby suffers from, they're also an excellent reference and a great tutorial to really advance you in the language.

django, if you were interested. It's python, but python inspired ruby anyway.

I believe the syntax of Ruby will scare away normal/weak developers with no exposure to C or python - while it is an effecient syntax it's not like much else out there.

I bought a book set from amazon covering programming in Ruby and a book covering Agile web development with Rails.

Really it's true that Rails is just a MVC application of Ruby with some frills thrown in for good measure. But there is a whole new programming language to learn. I do like the idea of a shortened development timeline and the default scaffold in Ruby does pretty good. I haven't put it through it's paces yet though and will need some significant experience with it before I throw down my PHP/JSP.