Why is Ruby on Rails more popular than Django?

[rh]

Choices are good. [...] Having one choice is a mess. And
look back at history and current events

Sometimes "choices" are forced upon you without your consent or even
without regard for the end users' well-being. In this case "choices"
are no longer "choices", they become unnecessary dead weight on the
backs of users, they become malevolent multiplicities.

So the meme in this thread is "python needs a single web devel. env."
And the agenda is
"Django should become the defacto python web framework."
(a knee-jerk)

Forcing a choice is no choice, as you've said.
Get behind a choice and submit fixes, provide feedback and/or
STFU. (not directed at any single person but at the population)

 

[rusi]

Choices are good.

Having one choice is a mess. And look back at history and current events
if you don't see that.

See http://www.perl.com/pub/1999/03/pm.html for how a real post-modern
hip language gives endless choice. Also called TIMTOWTDI. Or perl

 

[Steven D'Aprano]

"Where there is choice there is no freedom"
http://www.jiddu-krishnamurti.net/en/1954/1954-03-03-jiddu-

krishnamurti-8th-public-talk

Surely that should be, where there is NO choice there is no freedom.

You must work down the mines every day until you die. Are you free?

You must use Rails for your web app. Are you free?

The "Paradox of Choice" is real, that is, *too* much choice can lead to
paralysis. Freedom is not an unmitigated good. But there are ways to work
around that, starting with the simple fact that products often are aimed
at niche markets and so are not actually direct competitors. The hard
part is deciding what niche you exist in, not what product you want.


[...]

GvR understood and rigorously implemented a dictum that Nicklaus Wirth
formulated decades ago -- "The most important thing about language
design is what to leave out." Therefore Python is a beautiful language.
Unfortunately the same leadership did not carry over to web frameworks
and so we have a mess.

The entire software ecosystem is not equivalent to designing a single
language. Apart from the practical matter that it would require a
totalitarian dictator to declare that there is One True web framework
which everyone must use on pain of death, there is also the little matter
that individual products can concentrate on different strengths. No one
product can solve all problems -- you can't have a web framework which is
simultaneously lightweight for those with small needs AND heavyweight for
those with large needs. (Or at least, it is *incredibly difficult* to
have a single product be all things to all people.)


'I'm sure we can pull together, sir.'
Lord Vetinari raised his eyebrows. 'Oh, I do hope not, I really do hope
not. Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull
in all kinds of directions.' He smiled. 'It's the only way to make
progress.'
- Terry Pratchett, "The Truth"

 

[rh]

See http://www.perl.com/pub/1999/03/pm.html for how a real post-modern
hip language gives endless choice. Also called TIMTOWTDI. Or perl

Didn't read that. Make django the defacto python webdev platform then.
It won't make django better, maybe it will make more people use it because
they will get a false sense that it must be good because it's defacto.

I see that pycon is all about django, best of luck with it.

 

[rusi]

Surely that should be, where there is NO choice there is no freedom.

The "Paradox of Choice" is real, that is, *too* much choice can lead to
paralysis.

Thanks for that 'google-tip'. I guess a secular outlook would have
wider reach than a guru like Krishnamurti. In any case
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less
says more or less what Krishnamurti does (apart from the absolutes).