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Ask HN: Why is Ruby on Rails the absolute Best programming language?

2 points by mnentr ↗ HN
I'm 24, non-technical, involved with a software start-up.

I know there's somewhat of a generation gap between development platforms, what are young developers using? What should I avoid?

I hear Ruby on rails is sexy, php is sexy, VB.net is not sexy, Java (html and css) are good as all-around foundations, html 5 is sexy...

But I want to hear it from the horses mouths. What languages are appealing for developers to KNOW for building startups, Also helpful to see examples of what people have built in each.

Seeking buzzwords like 'agile, flexible, developer community around the technology, '

10 comments

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gregjor
Charles Babbage comes to mind: "I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

This is like asking professional writers what words they think aspiring writers should know, and what kind of pencil they use.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
mnentr
"The, And, If, Love, courage, fear"

"If you're taking an exam, a #2"

bjonathan
Hi,

First of all RoR isnt the absolute best programming language in the world. There isnt a best programming language in the world but there is language more suited to your needs !

Ruby on Rails as a Ruby Framework and Django as a Python framework are often praised to be good language to build a MVP. Because with RoR/Django you can build a product relatively quickly and easily.

If you want to learn how to develop, there is vibrant community for both of these frameworks and yes that is important if you want to start !

IMO: Choose your project then choose a language.

bdclimber14
From a pragmatic point of view, Ruby on Rails does generally take less code for web applications than comparable languages and frameworks. This makes it faster, but only if you know RoR.

Other languages and frameworks may not be considered sexy because they take a lot of code to do common functions, aren't concise languages, or don't have an easy or "right" way to do some things. RoR is also sexy because of the ecosystem of plugins (gems) that solve a lot of boilerplate problems.

However, I agree with everyone else, choose the right tool for the project.

bdclimber14
I also wanted to add that the right tool may also be dependent on price.

You wouldn't buy a $2,000 nail gun if you were only building a bookshelf, despite the fact that a nail gun is far more efficient than a hammer. Think developer salaries and cost of tools.

mnentr
What are some age trends (in general do younger developers get into ruby/django/python for building web applications? )

Vs using something like VB.net

ARC1
"What should I avoid?"

Does anyone have any further input this?

Also, can you break down which languages are good for which types of projects?

Thanks all!

[dead] ARC1
"What should I avoid?"

Does anyone have any further input this?

Also, can you break down which languages are good for which types of projects?

Thanks all!