PHP vs Ruby on Rails?

[candycanearter07]

Hi, so I just recently started learning Ruby and I really clicked with a lot of the syntax for it. However, I'm still kinda new to it and am also unfamiliar with the On Rails version or if its substantially different/more complex. Should I rewrite my PHP pages to instead be Rails?

[crazyroostereye]

I cant really give you are recommendation what to do. But personally I prefer PHP, more used to it. But also I don't have much experience in Ruby or Ruby on Rails.

But isn't Ruby on Rails Developed by DHH, a questionable Figure?

[Dan Q]

PHP and Ruby are my two favourite programming languages. I'm sure I could say a lot about them.

But if you're coming from scratch, I'd recommend Ruby over PHP. Ruby's "principle of least surprise" means that it's got fewer unexpected edge cases and weirdnesses. PHP was originally written in Perl, then rewritten in C, and backed onto the standard libraries of both for a while which is one of the biggest reasons it's full of surprises. Like: how sometimes you'll find a search function that accepts the parameters in one order and then you find a slightly different one that expects them in a different order. Or the raft of changes PHP's had over the years with handling of superglobals. PHP gives you LOTS of ways to shoot yourself in the foot!

So if you're learning both as a newcomer... I'd recommend Ruby.

Rails, however, is a large, heavyweight framework. And it's really opinionated, which is great if you know it well because you can knock out things in the "Rails way" very quickly... but it means there's a steep learning curve for beginners.

So here's my recommendation: learn Ruby, but start with a framework that's lighter than Rails. Here are some of my favourite Ruby-based tools that you might like to consider playing with:

• Let's start with static site generation: I appreciate that Jekyll is popular, but Middleman is my favourite Ruby-based SSG. The only reason I'd choose Jekyll over Ruby is if I were making a blog (only), and liked its defaults.
• My favourite lightweight framework for Ruby is Sinatra, and it's very beginner-friendly. If you find you're missing Rails-like features like ActiveRecord etc., you can add just those in (I do it all the time!), or else consider Padrino, which is like Sinatra "plus some extra bits" (although less beginner-friendly as a result).
• I've not used, but I've heard good things about Hanami as a Rails-alternative. Still looks a bit heavyweight to me.
• If you're coming from a Node+Express background, Roda would probably be pretty familiar. It's pretty bare-bones out of the box, but otherwise pretty Sinatra-like (there's a page listing the differences!).
• If you like PHP's simple "put a file on a webserver and it runs" approach... you can even pull this off with Ruby! I haven't done it in years, but you can absolutely configure your webserver to e.g. spot .html.erb files and ruby them through ERB. You don't get much "for free" with this, but it's a viable way to leverage CGI to get Ruby-powered interactivity into an existing static site, I suppose.

List too long? Just grab Sinatra and start there, then: that's my suggestion! Much easier to learn than Rails, much more satisfying "out of the gate". And still more beginner-friendly than PHP.

[candycanearter07]

But isn't Ruby on Rails Developed by DHH, a questionable Figure?

Are they? I don't really follow devs like that...

But if you're coming from scratch

I wouldn't say I'm completely "new" to PHP, I've been using it on my site for about a year now? Would it also be possible to transfer from Sinatra to RoR if I wanted to in the future?

[candycanearter07]

Looking at my provider again, it seems like the user isn't able to install programs or run their own daemons, so Sinatra *may* be off the table... How bad is RoR to use? It's listed explicitly as "supported" on the FAQ page, so best case would be using that maybe

[Dan Q]

Would it also be possible to transfer from Sinatra to RoR if I wanted to in the future?

Not easily, but certainly possible. Lots of bits would be reusable. Sinatra to Padrino is easy though.

Sinatra to Rails would be easier than switching from PHP to RoR, would be a total rewrite.

Looking at my provider again, it seems like the user isn't able to install programs or run their own daemons, so Sinatra *may* be off the table... How bad is RoR to use? It's listed explicitly as "supported" on the FAQ page, so best case would be using that maybe

Sinatra is provided as a RubyGem (same as Rails, and all of Rails' dependencies), so as long as you can install gems, you're set. It's very unlikely that your provider allows Rails but doesn't allow gems to be installed, because that would mean locking you to a specific version of Rails and would prevent you from extending it with any of the many thousands of useful "plugin"-like gems that people use with it.

Sinatra doesn't require any daemon that Rails doesn't. It typically runs through Rack, which provides the mechanism by which the webserver talks to your application. Your host probably doesn't even see what goes on behind Rack, whether that's Sinatra or Padrino or Rails or whatever else.

tl;dr: I've never heard of any host allowing Rails but not non-Rails Ruby programs. Maybe you've found one! But I can't imagine so.

[mrparker]

Honestly, if you want to use shared hosting - chances are you're going to be using PHP.

If you plan on hosting it yourself, either on hardware you own or rented (cloud, dedicated) - you can run anything you want at that point, including a Ruby app.

DHH, like mentioned above, is a controversial person cause of his personal beliefs and how he ran Basecamp. Without getting into specifics too much, over a quarter of his employees at Basecamp resigned in protest due to him, when offered a severance.

It's up to you what you choose in the end, and for any reasons - it's your app, your code, your decision. That's the magic of being able to code!

[candycanearter07]

tl;dr: I've never heard of any host allowing Rails but not non-Rails Ruby programs. Maybe you've found one! But I can't imagine so.

Well, that's good to know. I just say that because RoR is explicitly listed as "supported" on the main page, so I figured they might've done some setup on the admin side to support it.

DHH, like mentioned above, is a controversial person cause of his personal beliefs and how he ran Basecamp. Without getting into specifics too much, over a quarter of his employees at Basecamp resigned in protest due to him, when offered a severance.

It's up to you what you choose in the end, and for any reasons - it's your app, your code, your decision. That's the magic of being able to code!

oh geez that is not good...

[Dan Q]

DHH, like mentioned above, is a controversial person cause of his personal beliefs and how he ran Basecamp. Without getting into specifics too much, over a quarter of his employees at Basecamp resigned in protest due to him, when offered a severance.

oh geez that is not good...

I mean: at least it's open-source. DHH doesn't make any money out of you using Rails, and there's not much lock-in unless you use it as a springboard to calling yourself a "Rails developer" and make a career out of it.

But yeah, make your own decisions.