RoR, ? Options

[woody]

Anyone used ruby on rails before?

I just d/l'd it & i was pretty impressed, wondering if any of yall had any opinions about it

[impala454]

i wasn't attempting to turn this into a .NET discussion, or compare it to .NET. I'm just curious how the thing works. you got your little jab in acting like I don't know anything but .NET, which most definitely isn't true. my last few weeks here i haven't even opened VS2005. so just enjoy your little stupid mindless jab don't reneg on it like you didn't start anything.

So is it it's own language completely? or is it rehashed C++ with some different kind of IDE? off the shelf product or open source? i assume if it's scripting that means it's not compiled? so you have to have some type of server side apps installed (similiar to php?)? is it for creating web pages only or do people create forms apps with it too? I'd like to create a decent website for myself, and the server I use has just about everything (php, .net 2.0, coldfusion, etc), I'm just trying to decide what to go with and this sounded like something different i could give a shot maybe. if it sucks though just say so

[Hartmann]

i wasn't attempting to turn this into a .NET discussion, or compare it to .NET. I'm just curious how the thing works. you got your little jab in acting like I don't know anything but .NET, which most definitely isn't true. my last few weeks here i haven't even opened VS2005. so just enjoy your little stupid mindless jab don't reneg on it like you didn't start anything.

So is it it's own language completely? or is it rehashed C++ with some different kind of IDE? off the shelf product or open source? i assume if it's scripting that means it's not compiled? so you have to have some type of server side apps installed (similiar to php?)? is it for creating web pages only or do people create forms apps with it too? I'd like to create a decent website for myself, and the server I use has just about everything (php, .net 2.0, coldfusion, etc), I'm just trying to decide what to go with and this sounded like something different i could give a shot maybe. if it sucks though just say so

Seriously, I wasn't trying to turn this into a debate. I was trying to be funny which obviously failed miserably. That's the truth. Take it or leave it, that's the last thing I'll say about it.


Back to RoR. It started with Ruby, which is a scripting language developed in Japan. It is similar to Python with a slightly different syntax and a different treatment for OO. Everything in Ruby is an object, even the methods that define the objects (ex: var.Type will return "String", which then you can access the String properties), kind of like C#

Anyway, a guy liked the OO implementation and decided to build an MVC wrapper for it which has evolved into Ruby on Rails. In and of itself it is not a language separate from Ruby, just a framework that sits on top of Ruby enforcing MVC.

You have a Ruby interpreter that sits on the server (just like PHP). You can create Form apps with Ruby but I have not seen anything done in Rails as like I said above, it's just a wrapper really for MVC and Rapid Application Development. When you create a Rails app you send a command to the Rails server and it creates a folder structure (looks like what you would have for a Struts or .NET app) and the basic database structure. It creates the basic configs and gets you started on your way. The cool factor is up there.

There are heated debates about the speed of applications written in PHP vs. those written in RoR and to be honest I haven't seen a noticeable difference. I will say I like PHP more just because I am comfortable with the C-like syntax. I want to spend more time playing with it but just haven't had the chance.

Also, if you do try out RoR, check out Django which is a similar project but built on top of Python.