Comments on: Ajax & Ruby on Rails : Web 2.0 http://www.plexav.com/2005/ajax-and-ruby-on-rails/ Interactive Blogging Defined Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:40:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Kenneth Stein http://www.plexav.com/2005/ajax-and-ruby-on-rails/#comment-22 Kenneth Stein Sun, 11 Dec 2005 17:56:19 +0000 http://www.plexav.com/?p=66#comment-22 <p>Greetings Okke, I agree with you that Ajax and RoR aren't 'competing' in the sense that a developer must choose one or the other. Where they compete is in regards to the philosophies upon which they're constructed. </p> <p>You say that RoR is 'very extendable, adaptable and agile.' One only need consider the name 'Ruby-on-Rails' to get the idea that this framework sacrifices flexibility in exchange for accelerated development timefames. More specifically, RoR is an implementation of a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. As flexible as RoR is, it is flexible only within MVC. In fact, RoR inherits the limitations of Ruby AND the limitations imposed by the MVC architecture. </p> <p>RoR looks great compared with what's come before it. However, don't let that lull you into a false sense that RoR represents the best that we're capable of as designers and developers. This reminds me of a story...</p> <p>The devil and a friend were walking along a sidewalk. A man walking aways in front of them saw something on the ground and stopped to pick it up before continuing on his way. The devil started quietly laughing and his friend asked him what he found funny. The devil replied, "That man has just found a piece of the truth and has mistaken it for the whole truth," The devil chuckled. "Having found what he believes to be the whole truth, he'll now stop searching alltogether."</p> <p>~Kenneth</p> Greetings Okke, I agree with you that Ajax and RoR aren’t ‘competing’ in the sense that a developer must choose one or the other. Where they compete is in regards to the philosophies upon which they’re constructed.

You say that RoR is ‘very extendable, adaptable and agile.’ One only need consider the name ‘Ruby-on-Rails’ to get the idea that this framework sacrifices flexibility in exchange for accelerated development timefames. More specifically, RoR is an implementation of a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. As flexible as RoR is, it is flexible only within MVC. In fact, RoR inherits the limitations of Ruby AND the limitations imposed by the MVC architecture.

RoR looks great compared with what’s come before it. However, don’t let that lull you into a false sense that RoR represents the best that we’re capable of as designers and developers. This reminds me of a story…

The devil and a friend were walking along a sidewalk. A man walking aways in front of them saw something on the ground and stopped to pick it up before continuing on his way. The devil started quietly laughing and his friend asked him what he found funny. The devil replied, “That man has just found a piece of the truth and has mistaken it for the whole truth,” The devil chuckled. “Having found what he believes to be the whole truth, he’ll now stop searching alltogether.”

~Kenneth

]]> By: Okke Formsma http://www.plexav.com/2005/ajax-and-ruby-on-rails/#comment-21 Okke Formsma Sun, 11 Dec 2005 00:19:10 +0000 http://www.plexav.com/?p=66#comment-21 <p>Ehm, I'm sorry, but I don't really get the idea you understand completely what web 2.0, ajax and RoR are.</p> <p>You're talking about web 2.0 as a framework and RoR and ajax as competiting alternatives. Well, the fact is that RoR is a framework and uses AJAX to get a better user experience - and with the improved user experience, web 2.0 comes along.</p> <p>You say as well that with RoR, you're limited to what is possible with RoR. Again, I would like to prove you wrong. RoR is very extendable, adaptable and agile. With other words: if you don't like the perticular way it handles something, you can change it. If you want to use another javascript library for the AJAX fucntionality, you change it. So you're not bound to what the framework dictates, it's made to be edited to suit the needs of the developer.</p> Ehm, I’m sorry, but I don’t really get the idea you understand completely what web 2.0, ajax and RoR are.

You’re talking about web 2.0 as a framework and RoR and ajax as competiting alternatives. Well, the fact is that RoR is a framework and uses AJAX to get a better user experience - and with the improved user experience, web 2.0 comes along.

You say as well that with RoR, you’re limited to what is possible with RoR. Again, I would like to prove you wrong. RoR is very extendable, adaptable and agile. With other words: if you don’t like the perticular way it handles something, you can change it. If you want to use another javascript library for the AJAX fucntionality, you change it. So you’re not bound to what the framework dictates, it’s made to be edited to suit the needs of the developer.

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