

Ruby’s Popularity On The Up; An Ideal Haven For The Recession? - qhoxie
http://www.rubyinside.com/ruby-popularity-marketshare-up-1255.html

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wheels
I love the meme. "How we'll survive the downturn by doing exactly what we were
doing." It's just become another reason to evangelize the same technologies
people were evangelizing before the downturn.

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thomasmallen
If any open-source platforms were to take a hit from a recession, I'd expect
Rails to be first. "Just throw hardware at the problem" doesn't sound so easy
when you're on a tight budget.

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justinweiss
That's true, but you might be missing the productivity gains from using a
framework like Ruby/Rails -- you can throw a lot of hardware at a problem for
less than a single extra developer's salary.

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thomasmallen
You're right, but the people making tech decisions won't think that way. Too
shortsighted.

(won't make my argument about other, less resource-intensive languages being
productive...that's just asking for trouble here).

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ducktyped
Rails coders are more expensive than e.g. php coders. Given the same head
count, a Rails shop will burn more cash. Many managers don't see productivity,
but cost = headcount x salaries. It's the easiest variables for them to tweak
to change their bottom line.

Of course, productivity depends far more on the quality of the programmers and
coding practices of the team than the language. I'd take a team of kick ass
php guys any time over a group of inexperienced/douchy rails guys, and I hate
php with a passion. Ceteris paribus I'd go with Ruby.

(Come to think of it, it kind of reminds of the martial arts comparison
mantra: "It's the quality of the individual practitioner that counts far more
than his chosen style")

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thomasmallen
(good thing I deferred my pro-PHP argument)

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jhancock
I use ruby. I use merb. I think they are great choices for what I needed to
build. I do not see bean counters making the same choices. I see them making
decisions purely from a cost perspective. This means more outsourcing to PHP
programmers in Ukraine and India. It means more outsourcing to graphics design
and html/css work to people with native Western business understanding and
shedding the full time staff.

I do not see how ruby will be a preferred choice the bean counters will
stumble onto easily. Over time, merb may have enough productivity metrics
available to sway the bean counters while at the same time showing the
production cost/scaling benefits as well (where rails has a hard time). But
this understanding by the PHBs will take time...possibly a long time.

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pragmatic
Yes just use this:

require "no_recession"

Ruby is magic and makes a great flavoring for kool-aid. Make sure to have some
every day.

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ducktyped
Ruby is great, segments of the Rails community are kool-aid. Don't let Rails
culture ruin Ruby for you. :)

