
Do Ruby on Rails Developers Need Merb? - raju
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3778386/Do+Ruby+on+Rails+Developers+Need+Merb.htm
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richcollins
Rails was created to make web applications like Basecamp. I think Seaside was
probably a better choice for web applications.

Now that client side frameworks like Cappucino and SproutCore exist, I don't
really see the point in using Rails or Seaside.

I would recommend Merb as a replacement for dynamic, content-driven sites that
people currently use PHP for.

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swombat
_Now that client side frameworks like Cappucino and SproutCore exist, I don't
really see the point in using Rails or Seaside._

Why would a javascript client framework remove the need for a backend?

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richcollins
You still need a backend, just not a complicated framework. The backend for my
Cappuccino application does not have to manage any UI state. It just reads and
writes to a db.

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swombat
Rails is perfect for building that.. that's what we're using it for on my
current start-up.

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compay
Merb has grown so large, I think at this point Sinatra is better for very
small projects. Use Merb if you want something like Rails, but with better
internals and more flexibility of companion technologies.

I see Merb as being like Postgres and Rails like MySQL. Both are good
products. Merb is better put together from a technical perspective, but
doesn't have the mindshare that Rails has. This means less plugins being
created, and less search results on Google for your error messages. For
advanced programmers this usually doesn't matter, but for beginners it makes
Merb much less accessible.

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thomasfl
>Do Ruby on Rails Developers Need Merb?

Yes.

For small sites, Rails is the ultimate in readable and simple frameworks.

However. For very small sites where the whole application is placed in one
source file. For bigger sites where not all the controllers is placed in one
directory. For sites which uses jQuery instead of prototype. For sites where
thread-safety is important, the answer is Merb.

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kuniklo
Sounds like Scheme and Common Lisp all over again. Every popular framework
eventually gets complicated and tempts us to do a "clean slate" rewrite.

Rails succeeded _because_ it's opinionated. I don't want to choose from five
different ORM layers. I want one that works.

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ivey
And Merb gives you that, with the basic Merb stack. And then when you change
your mind later, that's cool too.

