Does anyone who USES Rails hate Rails?

rubyonrails-talk
1

I was reading this: http://reddit.com/r/programming/info/666i4/comments/ and there's no denying it; lots of people HATE Ruby on Rails.

However, I've never met anyone who actually USES it who hates it. All the people who rag on about how much RoR sucks seem as though they've never used it.

Is this an accurate observation?

I have to admit, I understand where they are coming from. I USED to hate RoR, before I tried it. I hated the magic, I hated that I couldnt just "up-and-go" like with PHP. I didn't understand that "everything is an object." The documentation sucked.

In fact, a tried to learn RoR a year ago, and I gave up cursing and swearing how stupid it was and went back to PHP. But I didn't give up.

About 6 months ago I grabbed the AWDWR book, read it cover to cover, actually began to UNDERSTAND Rails, and once I "got" it now I love it!

I feel it's like Vim. "MODAL editing? F that." You have to change your whole perspective on how web programming works, and most people just aren't willing to do that. Even if the "rails way" is better, no one wants to abandon the "old way".

Finally, the criticism that Rails is slow...well...that doesn't even matter unless you are serving up millions of hits a day or whatever, and when that happens just mongrel it up and stuff, so who really cares? I mean, maybe Google which serves like 7 billion zillion hits a second might have to worry about Ruby's slowness and go with Python instead, but really, the rest of the world shouldn't care too much.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

Stedwick

2

I use Rails. Took a while to understand it. Now I love it. Nothing like stunning a client by assembling an app in hours rather than days.

3

It's quite easy (and quick) to get the basics down, but I find that the "magic" of rails sometimes obfuscates what's going on making it much harder to figure out som simple things. It's also hard to get the hang of the framework if you're a hack developer coming from a language like PHP. I'm almost two years in and still learning, and while I still find it frustrating, I love it.

-A

4

Why would somebody who uses the language, hate the language? If they hated the language they wouldn’t be using it unless they’re getting paid a crap load of money to do so.

5

I came from 7 years of PHP. And to be honest, Rails wasn't hard for me. I started out with OOP, not procedurla. See I can't even spell it.. I was already very aware of the patterns that Rails uses. I was reading up on Martin Fowler's patterns and taking part in the many, brilliant posts over at Sitepoints advanced PHP forum. Rails is just taking common sense, tried and true experience, and binding it with the greatest language ever created. :slight_smile: I've been using Rails extensively for a while and I love it! I'll never look back.

6

Hi All,

Why would somebody who uses the language, hate the language? If they hated the language they wouldn't be using it ...

Well, there's "uses" and "USES". When I first started with Rails, I followed PickAxe step by step just to get a Rails project working so I could get a feel for it. But, at the time, I felt there were too many details being offered to allow me to sense the Gestalt.

But having that intro, I went to Black's Ruby for Rails. I liked that a lot better, but there was still to much "stuff" there to suit me.

Thus armed with some Thomas and Black, I went to the Ruby Cookbook, and liked that even better.

By that time, I figured I didn't know enough Ruby, like closures for instance, so I backed off Rails for a while.

Now I've picked up "Pro Active Record" and "The Rails Way". With all that stuff, I'm ready to go back to Rails.

Fortunately, I'm retired, so I can take a meandering path to getting to love Rails. But I think I'll take on client with needs for a rich website that Rails will facilitate in developing. When that succeeds as well as I expect, then I'll be USING Rails and I'll love it.

Regards, Richard

7

i have newbie for most of the programming languages ,among these language rubyonrails is really easy to learn compare to other."Love at the first sight" anyone who tries to use rubyonrails will fall love with it.the best way to hate this languange is that not to touch it :).i guess most of the user of rubyonrails have same feeling with me .

8

Hi --

9

I got hired with my boss specifically asking me if I had ever used rails? I replied that "I haven't even heard of it." But he still hired me and I had to learn to use it and it has been relatively easy. Long story short, I love RoR. I figurte I can do the work of three PHP programmers using it.

-S

10

"Love at the first sight" anyone who tries to use rubyonrails will fall love with it.the best way to hate this languange is that not to touch it :).i guess most of the user of rubyonrails have same feeling with me .

absolutely right

tried many different languages/frameworks but could resist every "temptation" - until Ruby came along :wink:

and Rails? The perfect marriage of

common sense, tried and true experience

the incarnation of KISS - the smart version: keep it simple and smart...

SOA? Don't talk about it, just do it! (Ares be thanked :wink: )

b4

11

use it long enough and you start to realize the limitations of Rails. Ruby is DAMN sexy. Rails is cool. I used to LOVE rails and now its just o.k. The rails core developers seem pretty damn cocky in my opinion. The guys behind Django seem a bit more down to earth -- maybe success has just gotten to their heads? Oh well. Note: I still use Rails for ALL of my projects. Take a look at other frameworks though. Ramaze, Camping just to see what else is out there. Don't let the Rails frenzy blind you to everything else thats out there

12

Largely. Rails is very, very good if you are operating in Rails' sweet spot - loosely connected flat entity databases and a pretty front end web site that is mostly design and display and little interaction. The classic being the 'weblog' application that (irritatingly) shows up in practically every example of Rails in action.

Where it starts to run out of steam is when you need to do more than that - at which point you have to drop back to Ruby and start writing software for real rather than simply 'configuring a framework'.

However because the Rails framework *is* a proper Ruby application written by people who mostly know how to program then building the extensions isn't as painful as it often is with other framework solutions. But basic reporting is hard work, and the web form widgets are pretty low level. And of course everybody knows about the challenges of authentication.

As Vader would say 'The Web is strong with you young framework, but you are not a 4GL yet'.

NeilW

13

Hi David,

Hey, I talk about closures on pp. 352-353 :slight_smile:

Well, said! Mea culpa :slight_smile:

Actually, I loved your book. It got me going with my first (and only, so far) client for a website. Sadly, it ended, because I broke my arm (playing tennis with my daughter). I was unwilling to endure the discomfort I'd suffer continuing on that project.

My experience is that if a newbee really wants to really KNOW Rails, he/she must accept the fact that this is a big topic. It's akin to becoming an ace in Mathematics (which is my academic background). It's a long road, and traveling it is what it takes to LOVE Rails IMHO.

I've also got: - Ruby on Rails E-Commence - RESTful Web Services - Pro Active Record - Practical Ruby Gems - The Rails Way and a few more (none of which I've read even halfway).

I browse all of them, depending on the problems I encounter. I'm done with my Ruby study, for now, and I'm back to Rails.

I grateful for the efforts you and the other authors for taking time to help educate us, the "unwashed" but ambitious. I don't imagine that any of you have been adequately compensated financially for the Herculean effort required to write your books. But I hope that the satisfaction in helping us, your readers, bridges the gap.

Best wishes, Richard

14

I am no fan of it.. I've been stranded in it for over a year now and i still loath it. I have to stay because the job looks like crud on my CV, and when people ask me what i've doing i have to say Rails. Then the interview switches to developing in Rails, and i can see a whole new world of joy :wink:

Why i hate the framework for two reasons... 1 it touts ease and people say (all over) that they can create apps in hours. The language is in no way easier than c++ or java. The logic and math is the same.. Setting things up to scale is no easier. To be honest many things are significantly harder than java and c++.. At least when you want you want to make things really perform. Which brings me to the second bit of reason 1. The apps that get built in an hour, only amaze people who have no idea what programming is. Why this makes me not like it? Because my bosses, and their clients hear the bit about easy, and fast and budget according to this. I have to fight with each new feature.

The second reason that i dislike the framework is because it lowers the bar too much. So much so that samples one finds when learning the framework, they are often shown code that is bad in so many ways it hurts my brain to think of it... But then the same people who produced the samples say "well its just one way to do it". The low entry breads lazy coders.. And they stay ignorant.

Ok. So now i sound like a real hater.. Here's the good of it. For small low volume sites rails can get the job done. Rails sits on ruby, and ruby sits on c. All the power one needs can be found.

15

I have been in it for over a year. Coming off c and c++ for 10 years, I don't consider myself an amature coder. I do not really HATE it, but i do think it is overhyped,and i definitely don't like it...

Its just a library that sits on something real, no better than swing or STL (a might sight less IMHO) Active records are slow as, and foster rather lazy coders. Finish an app in a few hours... Rubish! My boss believed this, and his cliets believed it. The language is easy. Productivity will go through the roof.. Bahha haa. There are no silver bullets and 60 hour weeks with unreal deadlines ensued.

I dont hate the framework, but i wish my boss had picked java.

Oh. To those who say i should quit. Fab idea, but when asked what have i been doing for the past year. Well i never get past the gate keepers.

16

I am no fan of it.. I've been stranded in it for over a year now and i still loath it. I have to stay because the job looks like crud on my CV, and when people ask me what i've doing i have to say Rails. Then the interview switches to developing in Rails, and i can see a whole new world of joy :wink:

If you have ten years of C/C++ you don't have to apply for Rails jobs. Just apply for C/C++ jobs and when they ask why you did Rails just tell them you felt like a change but it didn't work out. Lets face it 10 years of C/C++ should be most impressive. But you will have to articulate your dislike of Rails in a considerably more professional way than you are expressing it here. To be honest you sound like a whiner. You didn't get on with Rails, big deal. I didn't get on with Java despite doing it for a few years. I just politely decline Java jobs and thank them for their interest.

Don't let it fester, it will eat you alive.

Why i hate the framework for two reasons... 1 it touts ease and people say (all over) that they can create apps in hours. The language is in no way easier than c++ or java.

This is odd. Ruby is generally considerably easier than either Java or C++ because there are less things to actually do. In Ruby a class is a class, in Java and C++ you have static classes, abstract classes so there are more design decisions and the application source gets longer. In Ruby the methods are either public, protected, private or class methods. Again less decisions and less code to type.

Maybe dynamic languages are not your thing. Fine. No problem. Java is not my thing but I'm ok with C and C++. People are different.

The logic and math is the same.. Setting things up to scale is no easier. To be honest many things are significantly harder than java and c++.. At least when you want you want to make things really perform. Which brings me to the second bit of reason 1. The apps that get built in an hour, only amaze people who have no idea what programming is. Why this makes me not like it? Because my bosses, and their clients hear the bit about easy, and fast and budget according to this. I have to fight with each new feature.

Ruby and Rails can indeed develop applications very quickly. But the code on the whole is quite shallow and amenable to refactoring. You tell the client that something can be put together very quickly but should they want it extended in ways that were not part of the original design it could take longer than they think. Perhaps the issue here is that you are trying to apply BIG APPLICATION development practices from java and C++ in an environment where Agile or XP would be better suited. It is not a coincidence that the Ruby and Rails communities embraced Agile and XP, or at least iterative development.

If I were to apply my mainframe COBOL or Fortran development practices to our Rails applications it would indeed be a world of pain.

The second reason that i dislike the framework is because it lowers the bar too much.

So what you are saying is that you can't stand the heat. Too much competition and you have no way of showing how much better a programmer than all these other guys who are actually interested in Rails.

The statement actually contradicts you earlier statement "To be honest many things are significantly harder than java and c++" and the later statement "The low entry breads lazy coders.. And they stay ignorant". How can it lower the bar, which I assume you mean allows a lower quality of programmer to take work from you, and be harder than Java and C++. Those are some shit hot lazy bastards you got there. Send a few of them my way, my developers have only one Phd between them :slight_smile:

So much so that samples one finds when learning the framework, they are often shown code that is bad in so many ways it hurts my brain to think of it... But then the same people who produced the samples say "well its just one way to do it". The low entry breads lazy coders.. And they stay ignorant.

Ok. So now i sound like a real hater.. Here's the good of it. For small low volume sites rails can get the job done. Rails sits on ruby, and ruby sits on c. All the power one needs can be found.

Well Java only sits on C so doesn't the same apply here?

At one point C++ was just a preprocessor that kicked out C code so that puts C++ in the same category as Ruby then :slight_smile:

You need to leave that job solely for the sake of you mental health.

17

My opinion: Sometimes Rails is good, sometimes it is ugly.

YAML has to be thrown away, but they force you to use it.

File names in lower_case_letters ARE HORRIBLE.

Rails is for monkeys, not for real developers. Even a monkey after some training can develop Rails. You may forget the base technologies with Rails which I think is bad.

AR forces you NEVER to use raw SQL. They just force you. There is no simple prepare_sql method. How it can be? See this answer

Template language is horrible after unbelievably convenient php's "<?php echo "<div> anything </div> ?>"

And all those begin end begin end end end. But it is not Rails it is Ruby, of course. But...

This is what came in my mind just at the moment.

18

I hate Rails sometimes. Now and then I have a feeling that using Rails is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. For example Active record doesn’t fit my every need and sometimes I have to use SQL. Because I use Rails I have lost much of my SQL skills. Last time I had some unusual problem it took me 6 hours to write a query. It seems that I modify problems to fit them into Rails instead of modifying Rails to adapt it to my problems.

19

Jacek Podkanski wrote in post #1107534:

It seems that I modify problems to fit them into Rails instead of modifying Rails to adapt it to my problems.

Well said. 100% right.

20

Similarly, I’ve found that using C has really weakened my assembler skills. (trollface)

–Matt Jones