cfis : A Community for REST

Comment on A Community for REST by James

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:22:48 -0600

one part a unified community (Rails is the way to develop Web applications if you use Ruby)

Actually, Rails is not always the best choice, and there are other Ruby options.

They may not have the same number of supporters or public attention, but that has never been an indication of quality or value.

It’s simply wrong to suggest that there is only one viable choice, or that every Ruby hacker prefers Rails for all Web development.

This is not to detract for Rails, which is clearly a remarkable tool. It’s just not the only one, or the best one for all cases.

Comment on A Community for REST by Charlie

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 01:10:49 -0600

Hi James - good points, I don’t mean to take away from other efforts such as Nitro (or home grown solutions) It’s of course always good to have competition.

However, I do think Rails dominates the Ruby community more than framework in other languages (python, php, perl) dominate theirs.

Comment on A Community for REST by Avdi

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:47:18 -0600

I think the language is more relevent than you might think. While Python makes metaclass hacking possible, Ruby makes it trivially easy, and thus the practice of extending the language at runtime and creating micro-languages (DSLs) in Ruby has become deeply embedded in the Ruby developer culture in a way that simply hasn’t happened for Python. Rails exploits these techniques to the max. While Rails might have been possible in Python, I doubt it would have been as easy, and it certainly would not have found as much immediate acceptance from the Python community.

Comment on A Community for REST by Charlie

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:15:51 -0600

Hi Avdi,

I think a lot of people would agree with you - I’ve had long discussion about it with Peter and Donnie. You hit on the two key points. First, Ruby’s DSL support and, second, the differences in culture between the Python and Ruby communities.

You may be right, but I still think that the success of Rails is due more to marketing/political/luck factors than to technical factors.