Dot Dot wrote:
We just lost our bid to develop in Ruby on Rails and have been told to go back to Java.
The problem was that we couldn't convince the guy in charge of the Apache server to help us out (he insisted that he was too busy to install fastcgi for example). Because he wouldn't do it (and we CAN'T do it - not allowed) we couldn't prove up front that it would work, a more senior colleague insisted to my boss that we were trying to make things more complicated and we've been told we can't spend time developing in RoR.
Yesterday I was gutted, but resigned to my fate, until I started up my text editor this morning and was struck with a dreadful sinking feeling. In Java this is going to take an UNBELIEVABLE AMOUNT OF MY TIME. I've really lost the motivation to continue.
Are there any job opportunities for an RoR newbie who's keen to learn? Alternatively, does anyone have any comforting words / cliches?
Dot
At the beginning of a project like this, you have one set of risks relating to the requirements (are they understood?) and the solution (is it a good fit?) and a separate set of risks relating to the use of technology (what is the best way to do X in Spring MVC?).
You can address these separately - you could build a prototype in Rails to find the best UI, object model, and data model for the application, and you could build representative "thin slices" of the application in your approved target technologies.
If, after that, you do have to implement on Java you will have a very clear idea of what you need to do. It will also (a) buy time, and (b) let you show very clearly the differences between Rails and Java.
Good luck!
Justin
