Women in Technology

Article:		What Is Ruby on Rails
Subject:		Ruby on Rails is only one option
Date:		2005-10-26 11:45:47
From:		curth
Response to: Ruby on Rails is only one option
A agree that Ruby on Rails is jusrt one of many options. But I must a couple of corrections to your statements. First, Ruby has an analog of Perl's DBI called Ruby::DBI. Rails' ORM is build on top of Ruby::DBI and operates at a much higher level of abstraction. Class::DBI is in no way a match for Rails' ActiveRecord. Second, unless you need two-phase commits or distributed transactions, its Java that is not competitive with Ruby on Rails (unless you are competing for which needs to hire the largest number of developers).

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Ruby on Rails is only one option
  2005-10-27 01:33:34  teejay [View]
  
  
  I'll call your bluff on this. I know Class::DBI pretty well, I use it heavily because I am Lead Developer and Maintainer of the Maypole MVC Framework :)
  
  Class::DBI not only matches but betters ActiveRecord, the availability of plugins and subclasses offer far more than ActiveRecord can, and it offers significantly more flexibility. Not once I have I seen some Rails, catalyst or other project using an ORM feature and thought 'that is neat, I wish CDBI could do that', it is far more likely to be the otherway around.
  
  Hibernate is also more than competitive with ActiveRecord, if very different.
  
  Furthermore Rails templating system simply cannot match Template Toolkit. Template Toolkit has been around for years longer, has dozens of plugins and even books about it.
  
  Rails doesn't deliver best-of-breed anything, or break new ground other than in marketing and killer apps.
  
  Once the hype of the type in this article dies down, Rails will have to compete on it's merits and is likely to be found wanting by users who have tried the alternatives.

• Ruby on Rails is only one option
  2005-10-26 11:48:11  Curt Hibbs | [View]
  
  
  I don't know how my words got scramble! This first line above should have read:
  
  I agree that Ruby on Rails is just one of many options. But I must make a couple of corrections to your statements.