Rails myth: faster application development does not end at scaffolding.

by Rabbit

You god damn fucking morons! I am so sick and tired of hearing, “yeah, Rails is a great choice for small applications, but the moment you go beyond scaffolding, all that speed comes to a grinding halt.”

Let’s just get this out of the way: scaffolding is weak sauce in contrast to everything else the framework provides. Got that? Fucking weak sauce. Rails is a framework. Framework. It handles sessions, cookies, rendering of views, database ORM, pretty URLs, separation of director and domain logic (C and M in MVC — this is important to object thinkers), directory structure, include paths, SQL- and HTML-sanitation and HTML form, Javascript and custom view helpers. Not to mention a healthy dose of peace of mind.

Rails can hardly be called a one-trick pony. If you feel that the “power” of Rails ends with scaffolding, then you are a) a shitty programmer, or b) you actually enjoy the monotonous side of web development: the plumbing.

Let’s start with the shitty programmer.

Shitty programmer sees that he can suddenly create database-back applications with a single line of code. He gets excited. However, when he realizes that if we wants to do anything “complex,” he must actually program. Shitty programmer becomes sad. Sad, shitty programmer.

Let’s talk about the plumber programmer.

Plumbers, in my totally biased and neurotic opinion, enjoy doing everything but working on the problem domain. They are “technical experts,” with strong emphasis on the word ‘technical.’ They are true nerds. I program because I like to solve problems that model the real world. Plumbers like to solve problems that help other people solve problems quicker. (Rails is one such effort.)

Now, the plumber is not a bad guy, I just think we have too many of them. I also think that when they see that an excellently crafted infrastructure exists, they freak out. Afterall, that is their domain. It’s where they spend their time and they enjoy themselves immensely. Unfortunately for them, Rails is probably better than anything they could write on their own. Granted, it hasn’t always been this way. Rails did have its infantile stage, but it’s matured since 1.0.

Anywho, I feel better now. So night-night.