I had a lot of positive and negative responses to my most recent blog entry comparing Ruby to Perl and Python (Newbie to Ruby?) In fact, I had one guy go to the next level by creating a forum about me and the validity surrounding my intelligence of programming…since I am just in marketing. It’s ironic that this same guy wrote an entry on his own blog about shampoo and conditioner; more specifically marketing Herbal Essence. Maybe I should create a forum questioning his knowledge of hair products (and masculinity 
)…since he is just a programmer. My overall point is that I think Ruby and Rails are great at what they do but ultimately you should chose whatever technology is the most comfortable for your core development team. That being said, I am again discussing Ruby…this time with a Rails focus and have elected to follow a more impartial approach.
I heard the phrase “Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid” the other day while engaging in a very non-technical conversation. The phrase seems appropriate when assessing the hype that Ruby on Rails has generated. It appears that everyone is drinking the RoR Kool-Aid. The growing interest is fueled in part by the simplicity and functionality of Rails. Having all the functionality built directly into the web application framework eliminates the need for verbose configuration files. Arguably the productivity rate gained from Rails is its best case. Programmers are productive when they’re happy and they’re happy when they’re productive. Drink up!
Not everyone is drinking the Kool-Aid…just not yet at least. Try convincing a Fortune 500 company to adopt Ruby on Rails. Their arguments will usually go something like this:
- Infrastructure is lacking
- Lack of tool support and resources
- Lack of a good IDE
- Productivity gains from dynamic languages are immaterial
- Immaturity
The main argument usually surrounds the maturity of the framework, but like anything else these issues will almost certainly get resolved with time. Once it’s built up more in small and medium enterprises their defense will most likely be justifiable.
Ultimately, the best way to judge Rails is to experience it while building an application. Once Rails has the time to mature, it will be ready to be more of a contender in the enterprise space. I may have been a little bold in my original entry on Ruby describing Rails “in position to overtake Java.” Maybe I had too much Kool-Aid that day. I don’t think Rails will ever displace Java, but I do believe it will be a strong player in the future.
July 26th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Whoo.
Nice job shoving words in my mouth there; when did I say you were “just a marketer”, or “create a forum” about you?
I posted one comment on my blog in reply to yours, mentioning that you appeared to be endorsing a product or service while not disclosing that, well, your job is to market products and services. It’s an ethics thing.
And I posted a single comment in a forum I frequent, asking about the etiquette of posting such a response to you, and a number of people disagreed with me. It’s a discussion thing.
So tell me again, what’s the big deal here? The fact that my hair smells like coconut?
July 27th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Cool, a FUD war, waged by real marketers! Wait, is this merely viral marketing? Did Herbal Essences team up with the Ruby on Rails groupmind to empty my wallet?
Incidentally, when it comes to open source, who cares what the enterprise endorses? Why even ask your manager? Why not just build him something in Ruby on Rails? If it’s as rapid as they say, he’ll ask about it, and if he does, just say carelessly that it’s the industry standard now and it solves gross bugs in other methods of development.
July 28th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Mr. Shampoo appears to be a very bitter, bored and lonely man. I can’t wait for his next blog entry on the wonders of mascara!! I think we should collaboratively brainstorm a new hobby for Mr. Shampoo that does not include criticizing others (and critiquing women’s products).
July 28th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
This is actually a pretty simple issue.
If you have a vested interest in an issue, disclose it. It’s called ethics, and even the marketers I know have it.
Mandy, you made a mistake when you posted to James’ blog without revealing your conflict of interest (http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/06/18/lets-talk-about-python-and-ruby#c153), and James was correct to call you on it.
Now you’ve further erred by smearing someone you know nothing about. I’m going to ignore this “Kara” person above (but were this my blog I’d remove it), but insulting James because he called you out is both childish and silly.
Now pay attention, because here’s what you should have done to avoid this whole kerfuffle:
Disclosure: I’m one of the lead developers of Django, and James is both a friend an co-worker of mine.
See? Being ethical only takes a second. Try it sometime.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:21 am
Two words for you: “Ad Hominem”.