Ruby Feuds

I think it is fun to make fun of different technologies at times. For example, almost everyone likes to make fun of Microsoft. And Microsoft is smart enough about to keep their cool and maintain a good PR. However bad things happen when the loyal fans and zealots begin to take matters into their own hands. Rubyist are fun people. So they do what fun people do: poke fun at Java and Python. Obviously, people in the Java camp are a fun bunch too and can take some snide remarks now and then. However, things get really heated up when Ruby on Rails fans begin to take the 10x faster hype too literally and begin bashing the Java camp.

Lucas Carlson has posted a relatively objective and unbiased discussion of why people use Ruby and why people use Java: it's all a matter of taste. Here are some of the heated online altercations that he has conveniently included in his article:

• Hype: Ruby on Rails
• That Application is so Stupid
• Bla-bla: Ta-da In Java (and Laszlo and RIFE)
• Bla-bla List: Cloning a Rails app in RIFE
• Re: Bla-bla List: Revisting a Rails app in RIFE
• Move over Ruby on Rails, Java can be concise too!

The way that some people are attacking Bla-bla list was uncalled for. Then again, Geert Bevin should have just kept his cool and not insult Ta-da list as a 600-line monstrosity that is stupid and useless. In the end, what we have now is a duplication of a very simple to-do list: one written with Ruby on Rails and the other with Java with RIFE. So what? Whose gain is it? Ta-da list was created in the first place to encourage users to use an online system to organize their stuff. And to ensnare them to use BackPack, a heavyweight version of Ta-da list. Bla-bla list was created for the sake of trying to demonstrate that Java is capable of creating a simple to-do list, the same concept that Geert was criticizing as stupid in the first place. No one ever doubted for a moment that Java could not do something like that. Heck, almost everything can be done with Java. Geert wanted to prove that he could do it in Java just as easily as David did it in Rails. So did he accomplish that? I think the result is a tie. Well, good news is that Bla-bla list is open source so people can take a look at it and see how it is implemented.

Incidentally, I took a look at openlaszlo and thought that it was pretty neat. I did not like the part where it uses XML to design all the interface. But aesthetically, at least the code for it looks like XHTML. And the snazzy flash interface would definitely appeal to some people.

OpenLaszlo:

"OpenLaszlo is an open-source platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications on the World Wide Web"

In spite of all the hate generated, I am glad that why the lucky stiff has this to say:

Once I dreamt I had a robot who was made out of watermelons. He had as skin that green rind that's both dark green and light green. And he didn't care if I helped myself to his abdomen.

He just said, "No, I don't mind. Please."

He had a job helping cars figure out where to go. I got him his own cat.

The worst part was when I woke up and realized all the web framework flame wars going on. Man, what a headache.