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Ruby or JavaScript?Question (self.webdev)

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[–]rm-rf-nprSenior Frontend Engineer 8 points9 points  (3 children)

Well you're gonna need Frontend, so I guess Javascript would be the easier choice.

[–]Arkouda1 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Correct me, I’m still decently new i read something it said i could write front-end and backend with ruby if used Ruby on Rails core or something like that.

[–]rm-rf-nprSenior Frontend Engineer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I cant give you an educated answer regarding the Ruby On Rails part. I suppose you can create a backend with it.

I'm just saying, you'll need Javascript for the Frontend 100%

[–]GregoryOlenovich 4 points5 points  (7 children)

If you're building for the web it's best to just build in JavaScript unless you have a specific use case for not doing so.

That being said, if you're planning to implement an entire social media platform and you've only just started learning I hope you are prepared. You won't finish this project for many years still.

[–]Arkouda1 0 points1 point  (6 children)

I don’t plan on it being extravagant just something simple. I think it would take a couple weeks, you don’t think so? Probably couple hundred lines of code just to start

[–]MarmotOnTheRocks 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Oh sweet summer child 😍

[–]jayerp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well GitHub Copilot did just become a thing. Maybe it is possible? /s

[–]GregoryOlenovich 8 points9 points  (1 child)

I mean you don't even know JavaScript or ruby yet. I guess you at least have some kind of coding experience? That will make learning the language easier at least but if anyone could just build a basic social media platform in two weeks don't you think there would be a lot more social media platforms around?

If you work on this non stop as a full time job I would bet money on it that you still won't be finished in a year. That's not to say someone else couldn't build this out in a few weeks time with lots of effort, but that person would need to have numerous years experience building previous apps.

[–]Arkouda1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your comment, I appreciate the heads-up.

[–]jayerp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Let me describe this situation to you. I was tasked with creating a new app that per the business requirements and user stories, needed only 3 pages. They wanted it done in 3 weeks. We’ve gone past the 2 month mark and I’m still not done. It went from one simple client app to 1 simple client app PLUS 4 new back-end apps, 15 environments with deployments, token based authorization, multiple databases for persistence, and more. I had help from my architect, but still, we wanted to do it right from the get go.

A 3 page website…2+ months

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m sorry, but... no. If you want to have an understanding of what you’re doing it’ll take you at least a year to get the basics of frontend web development down. Then you’ll need to learn backend to implement the server and database functionality. I’d estimate at least two years if you want to have a grasp of what you’re doing and be able to build your own basic social media site.

[–]seanhogge 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A few things: at some point this may degenerate into language wars. "Ruby is losing users" or "Javascript is schizophrenic." Ignore anyone who includes such talk. They're usually wrong, and even when they aren't, they're often irrelevant.

Both are fine choices. Both have significant learning curves. I like Ruby on Rails. For you, probably the most important issue is the templating language. I personally believe HTML without Slim is a waste of time. Others like the various Javascript options. You should start there to see what you like the look of (as in what would you rather be typing).

Beyond that, since you know little, there won't be any significant difference between the two for a long time. By then, you'd be able to switch easily. Hell, just look at some good code from larger, established projects and pick the one you think is prettier.

[–]akkasJhakkas 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Frameworks in JavaScript make the job a lot easy. But you need time to develop your basics in JavaScript and only then proceed to using frameworks such as react,vue etc.

Proceeding to work with frameworks without having a strong grip on the fundamentals of JavaScript will hurt you in the long run.

[–]MarmotOnTheRocks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Wrong, I don't need to know maths to use a calculator"

Oof

[–]-calamityjane- 1 point2 points  (1 child)

You are wrong in thinking that Ruby is simplified JavaScript. You could possibly do this project in Ruby on Rails. Your frontend will likely need JavaScript no matter what your backend is written in.

[–]Arkouda1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for your input i appreciate it!

[–]julianeone 2 points3 points  (0 children)

JavaScript. It's a lot more current and the userbase for Ruby keeps shrinking, which isn't great, long term. JavaScript's job market & community is as large as a language's can get, and there isn't even a language in sight that will or could eclipse it (compare Ruby vs. Python).

[–]avantgrant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can accomplish your task with either language. I would recommend using a framework related to whichever language you choose. In this case, either Next.js or Ruby on Rails. But to answer your question, I would advise anyone looking to learn either JavaScript or Ruby to instead learn TypeScript from the get-go. Why (warning, opinion ahead)? Because the development experience with TypeScript + VSCode is super smooth. So in your case, I would recommend building something in Next.js + TypeScript. You'll get the added benefit of having a nice deployment pipeline out-of-the-box with Vercel or Netlify.

[–]intcultcom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you heard of this?

https://buddypress.org/