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Rails May Not Suck

Posted by timothy on from the isn't-the-question-whether-rails-suck dept.

KDan writes "With astonishing regularity, articles or posts come out claiming that the popular Ruby on Rails framework sucks in some way or another. People complain that Rails isn't as easy to deploy as PHP, that Rails just didn't do it for project XYZ. They range from the articulate and well thought out to the frankly inane and stupid (and wrong). Recently, there's also of course been the spectacular nuclear rant by Zed Shaw, which was more a rant against random elements of the community than against Rails, but was still presented as a rant against Rails. Here's an article that tries to put some perspective on why these opinions are irrelevant to whether or not Rails sucks."

2 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Too Generic by roadkill_cr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This guy's arguments are too generic for me. I don't personally use RoR, nor do I do web development, but I do program, and it seems to me that this guy's arguments can just as easily be applied to any free programming language:

    1. (Programming language) owes you nothing
    2. (Programming language) isn't perfect
    3. (Programming language) isn't suited for all applications
    4. (Programming language) isn't suited for all people

    The only point he has that doesn't necessarily apply to all languages is:

    5. Rails is extremely flexible

    I take the first four points as being self-evident for any programming language. It's actually a good list for explaining why there are tons of different languages out there. The reasons stated in the article explain *how* Rails matches with the first four points, but don't really explain why that makes it objectively *does not suck*.

    The fifth is the only one that seems to have any sort of Rails-specific content to it; and like I said before, I'm not a web dev so I can't comment on it's validity.

    Ultimately, I think the message that can be gleaned is this: that like every other programming language in existence, it is good for some and bad for others.

  2. Re:This just seems like nonsense. by nschubach · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me summarize the wall of text ;)

    Use the right tool, for the right job.

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.