This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz
by Obie Fernandez.
Original Post: Dominance
Feed Title: Obie On Rails (Has It Been 9 Years Already?)
Feed URL: http://jroller.com/obie/feed/entries/rss
Feed Description: Obie Fernandez talks about life as a technologist, mostly as ramblings about software development and consulting. Nowadays it's pretty much all about Ruby and Ruby on Rails.
Gavin presented about SEAM and JSF to the AJUG this week. I asked him about it this morning over IM and he bragged about "sticking it to Rails" and how it pleased the audience. Right. I'm sure it pleased them, but what is the point? I doubt that Java will ever have anything that can stick it to Rails, especially if it involves JSF. Given my background, I'm trying to keep an open mind about Java (no, seriously), but for godsakes, when I later mentioned this topic to the number one Java zealot I know, his response was priceless.
"I've heard more 'I tried JSF and went back to Struts...' stories.... if I had a dime for each..." and "the current Java story in my opinion is this: 1) The stuff that used to work, still works, and will continue to work, and is better than most of the new stuff that's come out. 2) The stuff we hope to get in Java is unlikely to arrive for at least another 2 years when it will be horribly irrelevant."
I am really starting to believe that the dominance of Ruby on Rails for web applications is not diminished, and perhaps even enhanced, by the increasing field of contenders, none of which can ever rise above a decidedly secondary position. Proof? Whenever a new lightweight web framework is introduced nowadays, Rails is mentioned. It's free marketing and a constant mental reinforcement of Rails dominance. As DHH asked when we discussed this topic not too long ago: "Why go with an imitator when you can use the real thing?"
Someone should really start a list of Rails imitators (topfunky?). I'll bet that most of them are at best insignificant or already dead in the water.
Previous Topic
