Author here, thanks for posting this! Any questions, comments or "You're wrong and this is why" let me know :) I do find myself wondering about the future of Rails (and I guess the wider Ruby ecosystem) though. I'm definitely in the "you can prise it from my cold, dead hands" camp but after years of watching them both slide down developer surveys it does make me concerned.
I'm kinda attached to "odd" outsider technologies like the Amiga and BeOS (which does make me wonder if there's a common thread there) so am used to seeing old packages and documentation gradually fade away but that's clearly not something that points to a sustainable future.
There's enough of the core components still active and after 20-odd years you could just say "it's done" (as I allude to in the Wrap Up) but I do wonder how many here would start a new project on Rails or make a Ruby platform a critical part of a new start-up ?
Improving platform: Rails 8 with Propshaft (replacing Sprockets), SolidQueue for job handling built-in, ViewComponents, Hotwire, ... such a smooth dev experience.
Definitely. It really makes me wish it was getting more attention - and I know I'm late to the party having only picked it back up over a year after Rails 8 was released! It's just such a smooth experience and I haven't found anything like it that compares.
The thing that really impresses me is how it's become a "one person framework"[1] and thanks also to the "batteries included" approach, you can run everything with zero external service dependencies. I have no problem with managing other services like a cache or DB, but it's just so damn nice to be able to focus on the code and not have to context switch!
Author here, thanks for posting this! Any questions, comments or "You're wrong and this is why" let me know :) I do find myself wondering about the future of Rails (and I guess the wider Ruby ecosystem) though. I'm definitely in the "you can prise it from my cold, dead hands" camp but after years of watching them both slide down developer surveys it does make me concerned.
I'm kinda attached to "odd" outsider technologies like the Amiga and BeOS (which does make me wonder if there's a common thread there) so am used to seeing old packages and documentation gradually fade away but that's clearly not something that points to a sustainable future.
There's enough of the core components still active and after 20-odd years you could just say "it's done" (as I allude to in the Wrap Up) but I do wonder how many here would start a new project on Rails or make a Ruby platform a critical part of a new start-up ?
Improving platform: Rails 8 with Propshaft (replacing Sprockets), SolidQueue for job handling built-in, ViewComponents, Hotwire, ... such a smooth dev experience.
Definitely. It really makes me wish it was getting more attention - and I know I'm late to the party having only picked it back up over a year after Rails 8 was released! It's just such a smooth experience and I haven't found anything like it that compares.
The thing that really impresses me is how it's become a "one person framework"[1] and thanks also to the "batteries included" approach, you can run everything with zero external service dependencies. I have no problem with managing other services like a cache or DB, but it's just so damn nice to be able to focus on the code and not have to context switch!
[1]=Tons of posts and presentations I'm discovering now referring to that. EG https://mileswoodroffe.com/articles/rails-the-one-person-fra...