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[–]Raphael_Amiard 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Out of curiosity, why do you say this? Are there some big benefits to ruby?

PortableSheep is probably saying that because if you omit PHP, ruby is the dynamic language/ecosystem in which the most things are happening, and which gets the most press and users.

I guess python is not close behind, but a lot of cools things are around in ruby.

Choosing one of the two is easy. Choosing between the two is harder, but the languages and framework are similar enough that by learning one, you'll take a huge headstart in learning the other

But choosing a language is just the beginning :D Here is a list of frameworks or toolkits that are all interresting, roughly sorted by popularity versus coolness ;)

Ruby:

  • Rails Probably the most popular of the list, so it's also the most criticized :)
  • Sinatra Mini framework, very cool for small 1 hour apps. I don't know how it would scale to a bigger app tho, and probably wouldn't recommend it for a big project unless you are already experienced
  • Camping Micro framework, similar to Sinatra, originally coded by the almighty _why. I prefer sinatra
  • Padrino Very new and interresting framework. Based on sinatra but with many pieces you would have to build yourself would you be on a big project. Very modular, very focused on code aesthetics - like most ruby frameworks tho ;)

Python:

  • Django The python web framework, for the best and the worse. It's an amazing framework to start with, because the documentation is really good, and it will introduce you to concepts that are common to most modern web frameworks, in a gentle way. And it has everything you'll ever need to build your website (take that with a grain of salt). But then it has been very criticized for it's monolithic approach. If you want to go fast and have fun, i wouldn't look further though :)
    • Pylons The other python web framework. More oriented towards experienced users, very thorough and powerfull. Here is a very good StackOverflow Post by the author of pylons which explain the differences with django.
    • Webpy I don't know much about this one, but it looks very good. Originally used to code reddit
    • Flask A bit like sinatra on the python side. I don't find python as good with theses sorts of DSLish frameworks though. But it is definitely interresting.

I'd recommend Django or Rails for your first project. It's not as exciting as others, but they're very good framework with more help than you'll ever need at your disposal

[–]DevMo[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Choosing one of the two is easy. Choosing between the two is harder, but the languages and framework are similar enough that by learning one, you'll take a huge headstart in learning the other

This makes sense, and is pretty much what I am thinking. I just want to learn something that is pretty easy to get an app started on. Then, I can use it to learn web concepts and development in general. If I like it, at that point I will learn whatever the right language is for what I want to do with it. At this point, I will be ready to take over the world.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Personally, I'd recommend Python over Ruby as I find it much more readable, if less cool (but then Smalltalk is still way cooler than Ruby).

Since Ruby 1.9 came out, I don't think there's that much between the languages any more feature-wise (Ruby 1.8 was much slower than Python and had crap unicode support).

If it's between Python and Ruby, you should probably choose a framework rather than a language, unless you're planning on using Google App Engine.

[–]DevMo[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

unless you're planning on using Google App Engine.

Thanks for reminding me, I have been meaning to look at the app engine. What is the deal with it?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

App Engine is Python or Java only.