

Ask HN: Which one should I learn deeper, Node.JS/Express.JS or Ruby on Rails? - carlosedp

Recently, I've been investigating jobs in the Web industry and startups and to go further, I would to learn deeper one of those.<p>Many offered positions asks for Rails knowledge but looks like Node is getting a nice spot in Web development for the very near future, also due to it's traction and the always improving Express.JS web framework, I'm still uncertain which one I should learn deeper.<p>I already know a little bit of both and been fiddling with Node recently.<p>Any tips on which one I should delve into? Maybe both?<p>Thanks
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jrubinovitz
What are the jobs and projects you want looking for? When I decide to commit
most of my learning time to a certain language, it's because that's the
language I want to and like programming in the most. For instance, right now
I'm trying to branch out and do less frontend work, so I'm learning more Ruby
on Rails and Django and concentrating less on JavaScript.

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pestaa
You already know a little bit of both, so why not just make the call yourself?
I feel you already made up your mind and now you're seeking reinforcement.
It's a technology trap and hurts your business. Good luck.

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carlosedp
Maybe you are right. Recently I've been playing with Node and some of my
recent projects (they are on <http://github.com/carlosedp> ) are made with
Node.

Also, every time I think about learning Rails deeper I think "damn, I already
know how to do this on Node. Why bother..." but the industry wants Rails
experience and every Rails developer I read loves it.

That's where the question came. Should I go with the current market or should
I invest in a "promise" for the future?

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pestaa
For that matter, I hated Rails.

Also, it seems to me you're starting your own company. Why does it matter what
the current market demands then?

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carlosedp
Actually I`m thinking about what could I build myself... maturing some ideas
but in the meantime, I'm been looking at the market if there are opportunities
for me to move and work in USA since I'm from Brazil.

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bo_Olean
I like playing with JS. It's nice to have JS on both ends.

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wavephorm
I found Express.js and it's sister-framework Connect to be a complete mess. I
had trouble following what was going on, major problems debugging, it uses the
factory pattern in the wrong places, and the Rack-style middleware is
inefficient and unnecessary for most projects. But NodeJS itself is great, and
to learn it best I think it's worth the time to write your own simple
framework and utilize libraries where appropriate (like db libraries,
formidable, and websocket.io).

Rails is over. It's a bloated meta framework that requires enormous amounts of
peripheral knowledge to understand.

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carlosedp
I thought the same about Express the beginning but as I learned my way thru it
I found it very simple indeed. You can build a Web App on a couple lines and
never worry about protocols and stuff. Easily integrated with Websockets using
Socket.io too.

About Rails, I think that seems like there is too much happening behind the
curtains with magic. Express seems more objective.

