We still build with Ruby in 2025

23 points 10 comments 8 hours ago
vindin

I don’t understand why Ruby and Rails get a reputation for being outdated or “legacy.” Over the last several years both have seen massive numbers of contributions, both in improvements and new features. I’d be surprised if any tool for building a new web app could even come close to what Rails has to offer across the full stack.

rafark

It’s the same thing with php. I would say it’s probably because they are languages from the 90s, but then you have python and JavaScript which are from the same era too and people never question their relevance or “modernity”. All of these languages (even java) have been in constant development since then and all of them have modern features. Why are some considered modern and some outdated when they are all basically from the same era?

A truly modern language is Rust.

doublerabbit

PHP typically required a web-server, system administration which is old fashioned. No one wants to do that which is fine as it keeps me employed.

When Ruby made western presence it was clunky. No one knew what it was and it got stuck with that personality. It had an ecosystem too but never hooked in to the western world.

Java is tainted by Oracle and seen as "business".

And it's also weird how Postgres has made an uprising appearance. It was sitting duck back in the 00's. I knew it existed because as an script kiddie I could install a php forum and select it as a database backend but I never did.

Want to make a LCD display? You can simply by slapping a python library in to your code.

Ecosystems pull coders in. Thinking about it, it's probably why Perl was popular before with CPAN.

The old net was special but skills had to be learnt. Remember the days when you had one server for one service?

The new net is terrible but everything is handed to you on a golden plate.

revskill

Rails has bad spa suppott.

ccakes

Is that a bug.. or a feature? Probably the latter

revskill

U know, nothing beats SPA right ?

andrei_says_

…In keeping lots of people employed.

All that extra complexity is great for the economy.

FinnLobsien

Agreed!

ecshafer

> - Rails handles our API, domain logic, and billing workflows. - Go powers services that need high I/O concurrency or long-lived network connections. - Rust handles CPU-bound jobs.

Very similar to Shopify. Rails for business line stuff. Go/Rust for performance critical services. React for front end. Python for Datascience/ML.

andrei_says_

A language intentionally designed for DX + a pragmatic, stable, well organized framework minimizing boilerplate and BS are still the winning formula for fast web app development.

The productivity and joy I get from working with this stack are immeasurable. I’ve been ruined in terms of having zero tolerance for the agony that comes with the JS ecosystem for example.

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