Is Ruby good for web applications?

[Unknown User]

I am a Python and Ruby programmer and I'm thinking about learning PHP,
which is similar to C++ (quite different from Python and Ruby). I want to
start writing web applications. Do you think if I use Ruby rather than PHP
I'll develop faster? Does PHP or Ruby have more features? How about the
speed of execution? What are the pros and cons? Will I have to compile the
code before running the apps like I need for regular desktop apps?
Thanks for your opinion,

 

[Phoenix]

I tried a while back to learn how to program using Visual Basic 5, but I
could never really grasp it. I haven't had a lot of that problem with Ruby
thus far, but I'm having trouble finding good beginner tutorials out there
for people who haven't ever programmed before. I'm the kind of person who
needs someone to "hold my hand" in the beginning before I can do a lot by
myself. Can anyone help?

Tiffany Ellis

 

[Bill Guindon]

I am a Python and Ruby programmer and I'm thinking about learning PHP,
which is similar to C++ (quite different from Python and Ruby). I want to
start writing web applications. Do you think if I use Ruby rather than PHP
I'll develop faster?

If you're already a Ruby programmer, and don't know PHP, then yeah,
you probably will develop faster in Ruby (that's obvious, no?).

Does PHP or Ruby have more features?

More importantly, which has the features you need? Only you can
answer that. Miva has a lot of features I need, but I doubt you'd
consider it.

How about the speed of execution? What are the pros and cons?

One will be faster, the other slower. Faster is usually the 'pro'.
My guess is, you'll write Ruby code faster, but PHP _may_ run faster.
Which do you need?

Will I have to compile the
code before running the apps like I need for regular desktop apps?

Most PHP apps are not compiled, but it seems it's possible.

Thanks for your opinion,

no problem, let me offer a couple more opinions...

Asking "Is Ruby good for web applications?" when your message was
"Should I learn PHP?" is a bit misleading.

Personally, I see little similarity between PHP and C++, but I haven't
used PHP in years, so I could be wrong on that (and everything else
I've said). If I am, I'm sure others will correct me.

Why the need to post anonymously? This is one of the friendliest
groups I've ever seen on the net, odds are, you won't be attacked for
asking a simple question -- those odds could decrease if the
subject/message seems trollish, and by posting anonymously.

 

[Saynatkari]

I tried a while back to learn how to program using Visual Basic 5, but I
could never really grasp it. I haven't had a lot of that problem with Ruby
thus far, but I'm having trouble finding good beginner tutorials out there
for people who haven't ever programmed before. I'm the kind of person who
needs someone to "hold my hand" in the beginning before I can do a lot by
myself. Can anyone help?

Chris Pine's site is pretty good for the non-programmer:
http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/

Once you graduate that, Programming Ruby (freely available
on the web and for a fee at your local bookstore) will get
you really started.

Tiffany Ellis

E

 

[Joshua J. Kugler]

I just came across this:

http://rubyforge.org/docman/?group_id=251

The "Ruby Course" (last in the list) would be ideal, I think. I'm
reading through it right now, and I'm learning.

j----- k-----

 

[Hal Fulton]

I tried a while back to learn how to program using Visual Basic 5, but I
could never really grasp it. I haven't had a lot of that problem with Ruby
thus far, but I'm having trouble finding good beginner tutorials out there
for people who haven't ever programmed before. I'm the kind of person who
needs someone to "hold my hand" in the beginning before I can do a lot by
myself. Can anyone help?

You might consider the "Poignant Guide to Ruby" by the
person who calls himself "Why the Lucky Stiff."

http://poignantguide.net/ruby/


Cheers,
Hal

 

[Chris Mueller]

The biggest problem I've faced so far writing web apps in Ruby is
finding a webhost that supports ruby! PHP was designed (more or less)
with web in mind, and has been around for quite a while. It is very
mature and there are thousands of great tutorials online not to mention
every host under the sun supports PHP.

But in the end, it all comes down to preference. If you're gonna host
your own site and you already know ruby? Go for it!

-Chris

 

[James Edward Gray II]

The biggest problem I've faced so far writing web apps in Ruby is
finding a webhost that supports ruby!

TextDrive (textdrive.com) is truly excellent. I'm running the Ruby
Quiz site there (with some Ruby CGI), a Rails application (with FastCGI
from lighttpd), and an Instiki web. This is typical daily stuff for
them and I found out how to set everything up from their forums.

Their responses to support tickets are timely and genuinely helpful. I
really appreciate that.

I also think their prices are very reasonable.

James Edward Gray II

 

[Florian Groß]

I am a Python and Ruby programmer and I'm thinking about learning PHP,
which is similar to C++ (quite different from Python and Ruby). I want
to start writing web applications. Do you think if I use Ruby rather
than PHP I'll develop faster? Does PHP or Ruby have more features? How
about the speed of execution? What are the pros and cons? Will I have
to compile the code before running the apps like I need for regular
desktop apps?

Have a look at RubyOnRails at http://www.rubyonrails.org/

It is a very popular web development framework right now. I think that
it can back up the buzz in quite a lot of cases as well and am currently
using it for developing yet another ecommerce application.

 

[Lothar Scholz]

Hello Unknown,

UU> I am a Python and Ruby programmer and I'm thinking about learning PHP,
UU> which is similar to C++ (quite different from Python and Ruby). I want to

The only thing where PHP is similar to C++ are two ANSI characters used for
opening and closing statement blocks: '{' and '}'
In all other aspects the languages are more different then anything
else. PHP is very much closer to Python and Ruby.

And if you don't develop larger applications then you should go with
PHP. Only if the project reaches a certain difficulty level it makes
sense to switch to a good general purpose language like Python or
Ruby.

 

[Daniel Amelang]

No offense to Pheonix at all, but we get one of these 'ruby newbie,
where do I start' every week. I'm totally fine with that, but
sometimes we forget to mention resource x, book y, etc. I'm sure
RubyGarden has a page for this, but what would really rock would be
for the ruby-lang page to have a 'start learning ruby now' link (I
think I saw _why put one on one of the mock-ups) for us to point
people to.

What happened to that great redesign effort that was doing so well a
couple weeks back? The recent surge of interest in Ruby really scream
for that redesign.

Dan

 

[Sy]

What happened to that great redesign effort that was doing so well a
couple weeks back? The recent surge of interest in Ruby really scream
for that redesign.

No offence for the effort so far, but I'd be really interested in
helping only if they switched to a "real" wiki.
InsteadOfOneWhichIsHardToRead.. =/ and implemented that _everywhere_,
including the front page and other static documentation.

I'm thinking a MediaWiki installation. (so far it's been the best
tool for the job in my mind)

Then for sure I'd take all the resources everywhere and nicely arrange
things there.. I'd do it all myself if I had to.

I totally agree that one unified and official "what the heck do I do
now that I'm interested?" page needs to be made. Then everyone could
be pointed at a quick "Welcome to Ruby!" thingy.

 

[Saynatkari]

No offence for the effort so far, but I'd be really interested in
helping only if they switched to a "real" wiki.
InsteadOfOneWhichIsHardToRead.. =/ and implemented that _everywhere_,
including the front page and other static documentation.

WhatAreYouTalkingAbout? RealWikisUseCamelCase,
AndThatIsWhatMostUsersExpect.

I'm thinking a MediaWiki installation. (so far it's been the best
tool for the job in my mind)

[[Granted, sometimes it might be simpler to use
another method.]]

Then for sure I'd take all the resources everywhere and nicely arrange
things there.. I'd do it all myself if I had to.

I totally agree that one unified and official "what the heck do I do
now that I'm interested?" page needs to be made. Then everyone could
be pointed at a quick "Welcome to Ruby!" thingy.

E

 

[James Edward Gray II]

No offence for the effort so far, but I'd be really interested in
helping only if they switched to a "real" wiki.
InsteadOfOneWhichIsHardToRead.. =/ and implemented that _everywhere_,
including the front page and other static documentation.

I thought we were discussing the redesign of the main Ruby site.
That's not a Wiki, to my knowledge.

James Edward Gray II

 

[Sy]

I thought we were discussing the redesign of the main Ruby site.
That's not a Wiki, to my knowledge.

Whoops, I was thinking of rubygarden. =/

 

[Unknown User]

Thank you very much guys.

Chris Pine's site is pretty good for the non-programmer:
http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/

Once you graduate that, Programming Ruby (freely available
on the web and for a fee at your local bookstore) will get
you really started.


E

 

[Jonas Hartmann]

PHP:
- C-like syntax but not comparable to C
- very simple to get into
- very easy to learn if you ever did C/C++/Pascal
- does not force you to go OO or code well, happens fast to write ugly crappy code
- very good documentation, documented function libary, comments, multilingual, searchable
- fast execution (even yahoo uses it afaik)
- function based libary which you have too lookup a lot
- is preinstalled on many webhosts (a great bonus if you want to write tools for everyone, and a big problem I have got with ruby :<)

Comparisons:
- would always prefer it to perl (it looks cleaner)
- if I could code ruby or python better a lot I'd not consider php at all