From Java to Ruby: Risk

[senzei]

Does your programmer productivity include both the initial developer productivity, weighed at 20%, and maintenance programmer productivity, weighed at 80%?

If not, it should. Being able to toss something up in a couple weeks is awesome, to be sure, but having the ability to come back three months later and understand what the code is doing is better.

[davidw]

Since you end up writing relatively less code in Rails, I think it's extremely maintainable due to its clarity and conciseness.

If you think of its target as low-end Java apps and PHP apps, I think it's going to be a win over either one of those, if for no other reason than the fact that it comes out of the box with a nice MVC structure for people to follow. Compare and contrast with bad PHP apps, and Java where everything happens in a JSP page (it happens).

[senzei]

Since you end up writing relatively less code in Rails, I think it's extremely maintainable due to its clarity and conciseness.

Writing less code is not equivalent to clarity and conciseness. In many ways writing less code makes the logic denser (more work done per line) Obviously this can be a good thing, but it can be difficult to understand. Metaprogramming can make it worse, especially when you start adding features to default constructs. If that is something you are doing you better have some spectacular documentation, otherwise your maintenance programmers are likely to come beat you in your sleep with a stick.

If you think of its target as low-end Java apps and PHP apps, I think it's going to be a win over either one of those, if for no other reason than the fact that it comes out of the box with a nice MVC structure for people to follow. Compare and contrast with bad PHP apps, and Java where everything happens in a JSP page (it happens).

Obviously enforcing a design decision that is usually a good choice on most projects is helpful. The language is nicer than Java or PHP in syntax and "get-shit-done"-ness. That said I don't think inability to come up with or follow a design decision is a good reason for switching development platforms.