4 ms·

Thanks for the response. I'd prefer to learn Ruby over PHP but I'm hesitant because it seems like PHP has a larger audience / more documentation that would help

Thanks for the response. I'd prefer to learn Ruby over PHP but I'm hesitant because it seems like PHP has a larger audience / more documentation that would help me in my quest to create web apps. Googling for help with errors in PHP would be easier I imagine, seeing as more people know PHP. Also, there are a lot of existing PHP scripts that I could build off of. Those are my concerns.

jrheard 17y ago
Those are definitely reasonable concerns! PHP has been more dominant in the Web world for a longer period of time, that much is definitely certain, and there's a lot of resources out there already. I think this Google Trends chart captures my impression of the relationship between the two languages, though: http://www.google.com/trends?q=php%2C+ruby&ctab=0&geo=us&date=all&sort=0 http://www.google.com/trends?q=php%2C+ruby&ctab=0&ge... In addition, although you're definitely right in that there must be much more PHP documentation out there, you're not going to have much difficulty Googling for Ruby errors either - just because there will be fewer results doesn't at all mean that there won't be any. Just like in any other programming language mainstream enough to be considered a good language to learn on, any problem you have in that language will have already been experienced by someone else, and there'll almost definitely be an easily found Google result that'll solve that problem. If you're really on a quest to create web apps and you'd like to invest in knowledge that'll help you and your webapps grow, I'd really strongly recommend learning Ruby (or Python) over PHP. edit: on closer examination of that Google Trends chart, it looks like a good chunk of the Ruby results are from non-programming-related hits, but I'd still be willing to bet that the overall trend is the same.
- yashodhan 17y ago
  Great points, solid advice - I can't thank you enough. You've given me a lot to think about and definitely helped stack a few chips in favour of Ruby. I'm a lowly web designer with many ideas for web apps that I'd love to implement/see implemented. Thanks again!
  - jrheard 17y ago
    No worries! I wish you the best of luck, and hope to see the fruits of your labors posted on HN one of these days! Also, for a well-worded counter-argument to one of my comments, see rick888's post above ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1163355 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1163355 ).

jrheard 17y ago

Those are definitely reasonable concerns! PHP has been more dominant in the Web world for a longer period of time, that much is definitely certain, and there's a lot of resources out there already. I think this Google Trends chart captures my impression of the relationship between the two languages, though: http://www.google.com/trends?q=php%2C+ruby&ctab=0&geo=us&date=all&sort=0 http://www.google.com/trends?q=php%2C+ruby&ctab=0&ge... In addition, although you're definitely right in that there must be much more PHP documentation out there, you're not going to have much difficulty Googling for Ruby errors either - just because there will be fewer results doesn't at all mean that there won't be any. Just like in any other programming language mainstream enough to be considered a good language to learn on, any problem you have in that language will have already been experienced by someone else, and there'll almost definitely be an easily found Google result that'll solve that problem. If you're really on a quest to create web apps and you'd like to invest in knowledge that'll help you and your webapps grow, I'd really strongly recommend learning Ruby (or Python) over PHP. edit: on closer examination of that Google Trends chart, it looks like a good chunk of the Ruby results are from non-programming-related hits, but I'd still be willing to bet that the overall trend is the same.

yashodhan 17y ago
Great points, solid advice - I can't thank you enough. You've given me a lot to think about and definitely helped stack a few chips in favour of Ruby. I'm a lowly web designer with many ideas for web apps that I'd love to implement/see implemented. Thanks again!
- jrheard 17y ago
  No worries! I wish you the best of luck, and hope to see the fruits of your labors posted on HN one of these days! Also, for a well-worded counter-argument to one of my comments, see rick888's post above ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1163355 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1163355 ).