Is Ruby on Rails Maintainable?

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Is Ruby on Rails Maintainable?

Posted by Cliff on Wednesday December 21, 2005 @05:51AM from the would-you-want-to-edit-the-code-later dept.

kale77in asks: "I've become a big fan of Ruby over the past few months, but I'm not at all sure about Ruby On Rails. Automatic code generation sets of alarm bells in my mind; so that, to RoR's promise of 'Web Development that Doesn't Hurt', I automatically add '...until you have to maintain it'. On the other hand, some writers and coders I respect (like the Pragmatic Programming mob) seem to be fans. I've mainly written generators in Python, to produce PHP/SQL/Java from SQL files, but I've always gone back to well-constructed objects, where extension and overloading offers more precise and maintainable customization than auto-generation allows. So is Rails just a nice RAD tool for disposable, cookie-cutter apps (which have a place, of course)? Is high-level generation just a bad OO substitute? And what has your experience of Rails' maintainability been?"

6 of 348 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

link sucks. by Anonymous Coward · 2005-12-21 05:52 · Score: -1, Troll

Slashdot editors need to get their act together. Fire them already.
OUTGOING by Anonymous Coward · 2005-12-21 05:52 · Score: -1, Troll

HELLO WORLD 23626 23626 HELLO WORLD 24056 24056 86299 86299 64911 64911 12941 12941 12510 12510 81018 81018 46278 46278 36318 36318 21677 21677 05066 05066 96316 96316 17042 17042 10008 10008 73702 73702 89564 89564 30453 30453 65728 65728 65146 65146 73644 73644 04204 04204 50573 50573 40023 40023 78241 78241 72363 72363 14930 14930 73814 73814 80393 80393 68211 68211 23720 23720 25009 25009 55692 55692 88807 88807 10185 10185 33910 33910 20812 20812 10234 10234 11330 11330 82653 82653 80836 80836 64348 64348 11050 11050 99575 99575 37644 37644 40024 40024 80482 80482 13285 13285 92056 92056 99555 99555 57622 57622 11516 11516 28489 28489 60813 60813 94251 94251 80575 80575 08403 08403 45984 45984 47632 47632 44554 44554 61246 61246 64323 64323 23074 23074 78754 78754 14657 14657 94456 94456 13095 13095 86679 86679 74354 74354 43269 43269 01633 01633 27422 27422 38054 38054 44455 44455 49396 49396 98350 98350 04677 04677 00352 00352 35609 35609 62721 62721 08095 08095 76094 76094 96807 96807 00671 00671 18368 18368 95988 95988 62227 62227 72301 72301 35224 35224 33483 33483 95430 95430 84967 84967 28898 28898 36349 36349 13007 13007 75363 75363 94179 94179 81077 81077 46246 46246 77769 77769 07351 07351 56448 56448 00125 00125 85229 85229 16003 16003 23753 23753 62367 62367 58322 58322 21590 21590 40734 40734 57022 57022 80763 80763 05541 05541 23130 23130 84485 84485 14319 14319 64822 64822 71307 71307 K-BYE
Article is a troll. by Anonymous Coward · 2005-12-21 05:53 · Score: 0, Troll

Anyone who'se spent more than 30 minutes with RoR will realize that the automatic code generation really serves the purpose more like examples from books for other frameworks.

You'll re-write them entirely and check your new code into whatever source-control system you prefer (SVN, Darcs, etc) before your first day is over.
Have you ever used it? by realmolo · 2005-12-21 05:53 · Score: 0, Troll

You seem to be under the impression that the "scaffolds" in Ruby On Rails are all there is. That's not true.

Once you abandon the scaffolds, you can do whatever you want. And it's easy to maintain.

You don't know what you're talking about, in other words.
Re:Uhm... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-12-21 06:03 · Score: -1, Troll

"Automatic code generation sets of alarm bells in my mind"

My sets of alarm bells in my mind have more problems with human sentence generation methods...
Re:Yes, very by spludge · 2005-12-21 06:49 · Score: 0, Troll

I am commenting on the Ruby language, not RDoc. The RDoc parser which I was writing an extension for happens to be written in Ruby. It may not be part of RoR, but you can make the same comment on ActiveRecord. It suffers from same issues. It's extremely hard to trace ActiveRecord execution due to the dynamic and cryptic nature of Ruby.