As a Ruby, Java and occasional C/C++ developer who has also written some production code in PHP, I work with and tend to prefer the power and flexibility provided by a JRuby + NetBeans + Glassfish stack over PHP. Here is my attempt to somewhat briefly describe not only why but also to encourage others to develop in RoR vs. PHP:
Pros
– Exceptionally high developer productivity with:
- “Programming through configuration” philosophy
- Emphasis on rather complete default behaviors
- Write-once (DRY) orientation
- Simple ORM (ActiveRecord) means a lot less SQL with minimal fuss
- Dynamically typed language means a lot less thinking about variable declarations
- Result: A lot less grunt work; more focus on “real work”
– Strongly encourages clean MVC architecture
– Test frameworks
- TestUnit is easy to use and effective
- Enables test driven development (TDD) often omitted in PHP world
- UI mocking frameworks are available
– Pre-packaged database migrations feature eases schema creation and changes
- Helper methods further simplify and aid to avoid writing SQL
- Roll back or forward to arbitrary versions
– Significant pre-packaged forms and JavaScript/AJAX UI support
– Ruby language easy to learn and more versatile
- Like PHP, Ruby language’s initial learning curve is much easier than Java, C#, etc.
- Like PHP, Ruby language conducive to scripting as well as slightly better OOP support
- Ruby language skills can be leveraged for use in environments outside web applications
– Vendor support by Sun Micro
- Dedicated team and significant JRuby project
- Good support in NetBeans IDE
- Quality Glassfish app server from JEE world
- Provides integrated NetBeans, Glassfish, JRuby stack in one download
– Tap JEE power from within Ruby
- JRuby allows fairly seamless access to Java and JEE libraries and features as well as your own Java code should you desire
- Result: You can start simple without being boxed in, and you can later add a lot of enterprise-grade sophistication.
– Community
- Contains a lot of talent from JEE world
- Libraries that implement simpler versions of enterprise-oriented features
- Community tends to be rather friendly and inclusive
Cons
– Maturity
- Despite making huge strides, acceptance remains low at more conservative companies
- Hosting options limited in comparison to PHP
- Dedicated server or VPS
- Amazon EC2
- Smaller pool of shared hosts
- The ORM can be a memory hog
- Fewer jobs open due to fewer projects (job to applicant ratio might be greater though?)
- Fewer sysadmins and established maintenance procedures
- Less support, fewer developers to maintain RoR apps
– LAMP-like scalability limitations for conventional architecture are comparable or more resource intensive than most PHP solutions
– Of course, if venturing heavily into cross-platform JEE territory the learning curve steepens dramatically
Eric Tucker 