A few notes on RoR

Im currently reading a book, From Java to Ruby, for me it should be title, From PHP to Ruby. Im looking into the benefits of moving my attention from PHP to a Ruby based framework Rails.

The book mentions that a developer should realize why he is moving away from the current language and into a new one before they make the leap. He points out that time in developing products and other technical issues may be it. For me its another reason.

Why am I looking into moving into a Ruby world. The question didnt creep up until just recently after migrating from job to job and settling on this one. I started working with the PHP Zend Framework and wondered if there was a need to move to Rails at this point since the main concern for me when it came to PHP was the lack of a framework. A solid framework with a large support base (IBM is large enough) So i thought i was golden.

Today it dawned on me that PHP is going towards the outsourcing road. I see more and more PHP developers from other countries, not that that is a bad thing but it makes me realize that just knowing PHP isnt enough anymore. After spending some time alone I came to the conclusion that I need to learn Rails not because Ruby the language or Rails the Framework might be better than PHP the language and Zend the Framework but because the PHP market is becoming too crowded.

My other reason im moving towards Rails is because it reminds me alot of what the ASP and Java community said about PHP before PHP replaced those technologies, “It wont scale, Its too slow”. I guess they forgot that the language was still in version 2/3 of development.