
Ask HN: Is Ruby/Rails over? - ausrname1
With even the coding bootcamps having mostly moved on from Ruby&#x2F;Rails, is it still worthwhile today to begin a project in Rails or to learn Rails as a beginning developer?
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troydavis
Depends whether one's interest in Rails[1] was because it was growing quickly
and getting a lot of attention, or because it made developing Web apps quicker
and much more enjoyable.

The former is over. The era when a "Rails shop" (consultant) could grow
quickly - often by delivering brand new apps to customers who asked for Rails
by name - ended years ago. I don't think there's a current equivalent to this.
For a few years, the interest in mobile apps was about as high as Rails had
been, but that's past too. (It's not a language or framework, but… I think
containers/Docker has had this spot for the last 1-2 years.)

The latter is still true. Rails is still remarkably efficient in developer
time. Moreover, a developer who enjoyed writing Ruby 5 or 10 years ago will
probably enjoy it even more now. Of course, other languages and frameworks
have also improved[2], but Rails is still competitive by these measures.

One thing that has changed from "peak Rails": the importance of JavaScript and
client-side, well, everything. For about 2 years, choosing a JS-centric stack
often led to using Node. Since 2015 or so, I think server-independent
frameworks (React) and languages (TypeScript) made other server frameworks
competitive again.

[1]: or Ruby, but not many people were attracted to Ruby for this reason

[2]: Node gets a lot of attention as a "Rails competitor," but I think someone
considering Rails for developer productivity and happiness would probably
consider Python (Django) and more recently, Crystal (Lucky or Kemal) before
Node.

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jedisct1
Rails doesn't get as much attention than it used to, but it remains a
fantastic framework, that kept adapting to new technologies over time.

More importantly, it remains one of the best, if not the best framework to get
things done in a minimum amount of time.

As long as I love Angular, React and Vue for the front-end, I think that
Javascript is a fragile and ugly mess for writing backends.

If speed is not a major concern, using Rails for the backend is a great
alternative, that works really well.

Rails 5.2 is round the corner and brings exciting new features such as
ActiveStorage.

Rails is not the new fad, but it's still something solid you can rely on, and
that will automatically apply some of the best practices for you. This is
especially important for new developers.

Also, as a new developer, Rails conventions forces you to structure your
project in a specific way. Which can be annoying at first, but this will
eventually help you understand how to structure all your projects in a clean
and consistent way, in all programming languages.

The same can be said for other frameworks, but Rails remains one of the most
comprehensive one, while touching all possible areas of application
development.

Also, as a beginning developer, you want to have fun. Enjoy what you do. Type
2 lines of code and immediately see the difference. Quickly build applications
that do what you had in mind. The last thing you want is fight with tools,
dependencies and random breakages.

And Rails delivers that.

~~~
andrei_says_
I’d say that if programmer efficiency is a concern, then Rails is a fantastic
solution.

If one is more concerned with server speed, then maybe Elixir/Phoenix could be
a better solution.

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nickjj
I think it's better than ever, especially with 5.2 right around the corner.

While I do know other frameworks (Flask) and am currently learning
Elixir/Phoenix, I often still use Rails because I'm a big fan of picking the
right tool for the job.

You should listen to this podcast from DHH which came out yesterday:

[https://devchat.tv/ruby-rogues/rr-342-rails-development-
davi...](https://devchat.tv/ruby-rogues/rr-342-rails-development-david-
heinemeier-hansson)

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wlaurance
I think that an opinionated framework like Rails will be around for a long
time.

Technology has its fads, but somethings stick around. There are plenty of
people still coding in C. Laravel is a pretty big PHP framework.

There are plenty of companies that built on Rails. The cost of switching to a
new technology is likely unfeasible. So likely the product/company will
continue to use Rails.

So if you like Ruby/Rails, I say go for it!

~~~
geezerjay
> There are plenty of people still coding in C.

Of course, as there is no real-world alternative to C for some applications.
The famous Linus Torvalds rant on C++ still rings true today.

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itwy
That ship has sailed. Catch the next one.

~~~
rman666
In what way has the Ruby on Rails ship sailed? It is still extremely viable,
and there are significant new features being added all the time.

~~~
itwy
I 100% agree but you have a much bigger chance of landing new job with React,
Go and friends.

