I don't want to use the command prompt. It's clunky, outdated and a pain to get around. I'm enough of a visual person that it makes FAR more sense (to ME) to use a visual interface to do things.
Why can't they just code it so that you load up a page in localhost/ruby and type in the same things you'd type into the command line? <!----------------//------ andy matthews web developer ICGLink, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 615.370.1530 x737 --------------//---------> -----Original Message----- From: John Paul Ashenfelter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 1:12 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Ruby (on Rails) vs Coldfusion > > I tried getting RoR running on my local dev machine and was > > immediately turned off by the fact that you have to do so much > > work using the command prompt. Have the RoR developers never > > heard of a web browser? Why would you *develop* in a web browser? I assume that you realize Rails *only* creates web apps so of course they know what a web browser is. In fact, one comes with Rails (WEBrick) that's built in Ruby) > As they say, you gotta start somewhere. What would you prefer - an > extra year of development time for a cross-platform GUI, or something > usable today? There are two different OSS IDEs in development, both > based on Eclipse, so give them time and they'll have something tangible, > same as the CFEclipse team. To be honest, there are only a few basic > commands that you need to know, and you'll remember them in no time > flat. RadRails for Eclipse is nice. There's RubyWeaver for Dreamweaver. All the Mac folks seem to use TextMate (which is *gasp* only a text editor -- no WYSIWYG). > The way I see it is that they approach the issue from two distinct > points of view. First off, you can't directly compare RoR and CF as > they provide two very different workflows - RoR has a vast array of > helpers in the forms of an ORB layer dubbed ActiveRecord, scaffolding to > automatically generate code for you, migrations and Capistrano for > simplifying deployment, etc; with CF you get the server and Notepad :o) > To fairly compare the two you need to start adding in extras to the CF > equation, which complicates life as there are many options for the > equivelant RoR layers - the ORB, the code generation, the framework > itself, the AJAX layer, etc. Exactly. Rails is a *collection* of tools, libraries, and scripts that support best practices for agile programming. The AJAX stuff, for example, is all from the open source prototype library (one of the two biggies, along with dojo). It's just all packaged really nicely. If you want a similar CF package, take (as an example) Fusebox (replaces Rails ActionPack model and view components) and Reactor (replaces Rails ActiveRecord). package in cf(c)unit and ant. Write a few (perl/python/whatever) scripts that generate an app framework and a few scripts that generate model, view, and controller templates. That's 100% doable. ActiveRecord is amazing, but that's totally portable to CF if someone wanted to (I mean, it's not like the pattern is new). Poof. CF on Rails. > Once you build up the CF side of the equation you have to start with the > core languages - Ruby versus ColdFusion. Ruby itself is fairly > interesting language as compared to the C/C++/Java/Javascript view on > life - syntactically it seems designed around readibility and ease of > use for someone with no preconceptions, while CFML is very definitely > aimed towards people who know some HTML but want to easily expand that > knowledge to do more advanced things, and its ties to Java (and .NET via > BlueDragon.NET) expand this advanced-ness to joined-at-the-hip > integration with other systems. Y -- Ruby is what makes it interesting. I mean, wow, Ruby is crazy cool. But build your CF framework instead if you want. Rails is about 50% activerecord, 30% agile practices, 10% code generation and 10% ruby. Or thereabouts. > Personally I think that every developer owes it to themselves to > continually expand their abilities through learning new technologies and > languages. Amazon has been selling the first edition "Agile Web > Development with Ruby on Rails" book for under $20 for a while, so even > people on a tight budget should be able to give it a go. Exactly. That's an excellent book (but many more are coming out) > -- > Damien McKenna - Web Developer - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 > #include <stdjoke.h> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:238173 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
