Skip to main content

Ruby on Rails chases simplicity in programming

Great article on Ruby on Rails, the environment that 37 signals uses for BaseCamp and Backpack among others.

While I continue to hear about this framework to help web developers be more productive, I find myself thinking very much about West-Wind WebConnect 5.0, still in beta and the buzz that was generated at the Southwest Fox conference about it.

No, they aren't the same thing (one is open source, the other isn't) - but the key goals are the same - simplicity in web development.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Andrew,

Web Connection 5.0 is nothing like Ruby :-}. If there are comparisons it'll be a lot more like ASP.NET than anything else.

Ruby is interesting and impressive in what you can slap together quickly, but I don't think it's really designed to build well designed business applications with. It follows the PHP/Script mindset more than anything and as such is heavy on UI/direct data linking metaphors, rather than business logic and clean architecture design. If that saves time in the long run for anything but basic applications is questionable in my mind.
November 2, 2005 at 4:31 PM
Andrew MacNeill said…
Rick,

I agree with you that the actual implementation is nothing like Ruby. What I find similar however is this entire push for simplicity in web development and this is something that I think you've achieved in Web Connection.

For those who want to muck around with low level stuff, they can still do that but Web Connection, they could hand-write very useful web apps - with WC 5.0, they can now leverage existing tools for building better UIs.

SO no, technically, nothing alike. Conceptually, based on the title of the article "Simplicity in programming", though, I find that WC does make it easier to do more with less.
November 3, 2005 at 7:12 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blogs and RSS come to Microsoft.com

MS has just introduced their portal and it's pretty comprehensive. Nothing quite like learning that some people use AIM instead of MSN messenger, or that there really may be a need for supporting 4 monitors ( Cyrus Complains ) However, it's really a great sign that MS is serious about supporting the blogging community which seems to have um, exploded in size in the past year. Blogs and RSS come to Microsoft.com
1 comment
Read more

FoxInCloud Stats

FoxInCloud sent this link a while back about their statistics regarding visits to their site: http://foxincloud.com/blog/2017/12/27/VFP-community-lessons-from-foxincloud-site.html What's interesting here is the breakdown of people. Yes, I think it's understandable that the Fox community is getting older. Another factor is the growth of the mobile and web environments taking over development. These environments really do push people towards the newer non-SQL or free SQL/hosted environments but more towards hosted storage options like Amazon and Google. A tool like FoxInCloud that helps MOVE existing applications to the cloud inherently competes with those environments. But FoxInCloud also allows developers to extend their application further by giving them a starting point using Javascript and the basic CSS (such as Bootstrap). If you're not rebuilding your application from scratch, it's certainly a great step forward. FoxPro VFP
6 comments
Read more

Facebook Revolt - imeem alternatives?

When Scoble noted how Facebook under major revolt , I immediately thought of a site I found yesterday. The value offered by Facebook's feeds however do seem very cool - if only they had been smart and made them opt-in, instead of opt-out. I have been impressed though with Facebook's opening of their API's - they certainly get it that they need to open it up to developers. I haven't really explored this other site, beyond my first look. In some ways, I think the whole social networking site thing is just silly , but this site (imeem) definitely showed some value. I could find music (as posted by the artist), it worked in Firefox and it allowed people to rank, add to delicious and more. And when I'm looking at someone, I can see what they're up to (or rather what they allow us to see). Anyways, you may want to check it out.
Post a Comment
Read more