For those of you PHP programmers, thinking about to switch to Ruby on Rails because you've been hearing a lot about it lately. It's the latest hype but that's all it is. I agree it's a nice framework with somewhat greater productivity but as far as I was concerned, I never felt comfortable using it due to a totally different syntax and a feeling of imprisonment.

Anyways, not to get personal here, and getting down to the real talk, please head to Security Space's August Apache module usage report

The survey data clearly suggests that PHP is still the king and it will considering the amount of market share it lost (percentage), it's not going down too soon. Back in days of 2000, when PHP was the craze, it had oust perl by great margins in short amount of time but perl still holds an 11% share according to survey. Looking at the current pace of ruby on rails, it doesn't seems like it's the next king. I agree the hype's created but users switching to rails are doing it mostly following the hype and I know quite a many who returned to the good old environment of PHP after switching to rails. It's of no doubt that rails can help you increase productivity by simplifying few tasks, but do many of us programmers like to see kind-of 'computer generated' code? I never liked framework and I rely on libraries that I have written or borrowed from few good sources and never had a productivity degration.

Although ruby on rails is a great framework and pretty awesome for newcomers, you shouldn't give up PHP because you think PHP will die after Rails pick up. The statistics do not suggest anything similar and since PHP's still in very active development, you cannot expect it to die anytime sooner.

All I want to say is, don't switch to another language because other's say it's the 'future of the internet'. Why not research yourself before jumping on to conclusions or simply switching over? Unless you have a real strong reason to switch to another language, you should stick with the one you're familiar and comfortable with.

I'm sorry, but this post comes across as nothing more than a misguided defensive reaction because you felt threatend by Ruby. I have used PHP for 5 years and RoR for 2. For new projects, I now never use PHP. You admitted that you did not like RoR in your post because you never felt "comfortable using it due to a totally different syntax". A lot of people get set in their ways like that and if you do, then you do. This is not a reflection on the language at all and the rest of your post comes off as a child-like rant because you couldn't be bothered to learn another language. Saying it's "pretty awesome for newcomers" is true but completely misleading as myself, the company I work for and our related companies are all experienced developers and have to a single man found RoR to rapidly increase our productivity and also be easy to use.

That's not to say RoR doesn't have it's faults, because it does. For example, PHP is and almost certainly always will be considerably faster than Ruby. Experienced developers can mostly offset this with clever use of caching. The remaining difference is paid for in a time spent development vs hardware purchace ratio - and it's worthwhile. None the less, PHP is faster than Ruby. There is a bigger talent pool available for PHP as RoR is new. It is also easier to find experienced PHP developers than it is to find experienced Ruby developers. You can probably think of more - but if you do - try to restrict them to language/environment faults rather than writing it off as something for "newcomers" because you are "(un)comfortable using it due to a totally different syntax".

Anyhow, I've said my peace. You will no doubt find some reason to disagree with everything I've said because "PHP is king". To me RoR is a tool - not my king - and when something better comes along I'll use that instead. For now I'm off to construct - enjoy your monarchy ;)

This post was last modified: 08-20-2006 10:43 AM by reason.

I like php too and I am sure it will remain the language of choice for many but I think ruby has a bright future ahead of it and its worth learning.