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I found Rails to be a massive productivity boost from the Java frameworks that I was using at the time (Tapestry, Struts, etc). And I still think it's the most

I found Rails to be a massive productivity boost from the Java frameworks that I was using at the time (Tapestry, Struts, etc). And I still think it's the most productive framework for the typical web CRUD app. But the typical web CRUD app is a dying breed these days and the poor performance and maintainability of Ruby/Rails for building fast, concurrent APIs puts it at a disadvantage.

gentoopenguin 12y ago
I wonder how much of Ruby's adoption was driven by Rails, and how much of Rails' adoption was driven by developers who previously only had experience with languages like Java or PHP. I say this because as nice as Ruby is (at least in some ways), someone already familiar with Lisp or Smalltalk will learn nothing new from it, and yet there are no shortage of blog posts by Rubyists touting its borrowed features as if they didn't exist before Ruby, suggesting, perhaps, ignorance on the part of its more vocal advocates and of those persuaded by them
- cageface 12y ago
  I actually got into Ruby before Rails hit and was immediately taken by it because it brought some of the best features of Lisp and Smalltalk and Icon into a language with a very practical, unix-friendly implementation. So I could drop in Ruby where I previously might have used Python or Perl. This was much harder to do with Lisp or Smalltalk, for example. But I didn't have a good excuse to really use it at work until Rails came along and completely blew the existing Java frameworks out of the water for productivity.
- vidarh 12y ago
  I've used 20+ languages over the years, and Ruby is by far my favourite not because it has "new" features, but because of it does it's best to ensure syntax gets out of the way. And that is incidentally why I have no interest in Lisp or Smalltalk. I have a very visual interpretation of code. I can remember the visual layout of programs I worked on 20 years ago. Those visuals matters greatly to me to be productive with code, and means I am extremely picky about formatting that works for me, and I have nothing but hate for the layout of Lisp and Smalltalk code. I'm greatful for all the great stuff to have come out of Lisp and Smalltalk. I just pefer to use those features in the nice embrace of Ruby syntax.
pjmlp 12y ago
Ruby doesn't not fit in my toolset because the available implementations neither deliver the performance our customers care about, nor suits itself for the types of applications we usually are asked to deliver.

gentoopenguin 12y ago

I wonder how much of Ruby's adoption was driven by Rails, and how much of Rails' adoption was driven by developers who previously only had experience with languages like Java or PHP. I say this because as nice as Ruby is (at least in some ways), someone already familiar with Lisp or Smalltalk will learn nothing new from it, and yet there are no shortage of blog posts by Rubyists touting its borrowed features as if they didn't exist before Ruby, suggesting, perhaps, ignorance on the part of its more vocal advocates and of those persuaded by them

cageface 12y ago
I actually got into Ruby before Rails hit and was immediately taken by it because it brought some of the best features of Lisp and Smalltalk and Icon into a language with a very practical, unix-friendly implementation. So I could drop in Ruby where I previously might have used Python or Perl. This was much harder to do with Lisp or Smalltalk, for example. But I didn't have a good excuse to really use it at work until Rails came along and completely blew the existing Java frameworks out of the water for productivity.
vidarh 12y ago
I've used 20+ languages over the years, and Ruby is by far my favourite not because it has "new" features, but because of it does it's best to ensure syntax gets out of the way. And that is incidentally why I have no interest in Lisp or Smalltalk. I have a very visual interpretation of code. I can remember the visual layout of programs I worked on 20 years ago. Those visuals matters greatly to me to be productive with code, and means I am extremely picky about formatting that works for me, and I have nothing but hate for the layout of Lisp and Smalltalk code. I'm greatful for all the great stuff to have come out of Lisp and Smalltalk. I just pefer to use those features in the nice embrace of Ruby syntax.

pjmlp 12y ago

Ruby doesn't not fit in my toolset because the available implementations neither deliver the performance our customers care about, nor suits itself for the types of applications we usually are asked to deliver.