ruby on rails ... python on ?

Jeff Blaine jblaine at mitre.org
Wed Nov 17 11:18:19 EST 2004


> I've looked a little at Rails.  It's not super special.  Well, it *is* 
> compared to things like Java; dynamic languages *are* quite superior for 
> rapid development of websites, and Ruby and Python are similar languages 
> in that way.
> 
> Rails is really a whole stack that works well together.  People have 
> been writing this sort of thing in Python for a long time; which isn't 
> to say they always have gotten it right, or that those efforts have had 
> the right perspective to be strategic successes (i.e., become popular).

I'd have to politely disagree that it's not super special.  It
exists, in usable form, today, and works incredibly well and
incredibly cleanly.  That's pretty super special, IMO :)

Talk is cheap!

> All three of these pieces fit together really well in Rails, which is 
> perhaps what it offers that Python doesn't have.  Well, I'm sure some 
> framework out there has this, but it's hard to say, there's so damn many.

I'm not at all sure.

> But, while this is really compelling when you show off the creation of a 
> simple system, I suspect it becomes a fair amount more complicated later 
> on.  At least, that is my experience with Python projects of similar 
> ambition.  It's neat to setup a database and have it work instantly, 
> complete with the standard CRUD forms.  But this only works for "leaf" 
> tables, and even then no so well.  How do you deal with joins?  How do 
> you deal with complex requirements on input, or actions on updates? 
> Eventually you'll need to tweak a generated form just a *little*, does 
> that mean you have to throw away all the automated aspects and code it 
> by hand?

I recommend watching the "2 hour" video at http://www.rubyonrails.org
(watch the last half)

> I don't mean to criticize Rails with these questions; it's not that 
> Python frameworks solve these wonderfully either, these are just hard 
> problems.  But for realistic web applications these are inevitable 
> issues, and I suspect Rails isn't quite as compelling when you take them 
> into account.
> 
> OTOH, I'd love to see something in Python that is just as tight as 
> Rails

Hell yes :)

Thanks for the objective and thoughtful post!

jblaine,
6yr-Python-fanatic-feeling-the-ruby-pull



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