"Ruby and Ruby on Rails won't make it in 2007 either"

My friend, it already has. I won't preach to you but I am currently heading up a rails project for one of the world's largest telecom companies.

The system is mission critical and will be used by approximately 2000 users.

This is our first Ruby/Rails system - we currently have Java (EJB, and spring framework) and C++ systems.

Java isn't going away. But from experience there are many "sweet spots" where Java can't touch ruby/rails' productivity.

But why take my word for it...give it a try and find out for yourself....

cheers

"Ruby and Ruby on Rails won't make it in 2007 either"

My friend, it already has. I won't preach to you but I am currently heading up a rails project for one of the world's largest telecom companies.

The system is mission critical and will be used by approximately 2000 users.

This is our first Ruby/Rails system - we currently have Java (EJB, and spring framework) and C++ systems.

Java isn't going away. But from experience there are many "sweet spots" where Java can't touch ruby/rails' productivity.

But why take my word for it...give it a try and find out for yourself....

cheers

I would concur. I have no evidence to suggest that you "hate" JavaScript. But I didn't base my assessment of your bias on a single article. Back in "A Cup of AJAX", you wrote "AJAX applications have to rely on JavaScript, assume the expert knowledge of this not-so-interesting language." While it is not as elegant or strongly typed as Java or .NET, the more I use it, the more interesting and powerful I find the language. It really is well suited for its space in the sandbox of a browser (kissing cousin to the VM).

Next, you write "The users will be more and more demanding, and you'll be spending most of your time on adding more bells and whistles to the GUI instead of solving business problems." First, I'd love to have that kind of problem. That means we're doing something right. Second, that's life. Whether working with Struts, Swing, or ATL. Third, we're finding a huge capacity to leverage existing components (or widgets as we're calling them). We spend very little time on plumbing now that we have a framework. Most of our time is spent writing EJB3 session beans.

Lastly, the vibe of "A Cup of AJAX" came off not just anti AJAX, but pro fat client. Now, that may be your bread and butter, so it's understandable, but I certainly don't think your review is a fair assessment of what's happening in the trenches in this particular case.

That said, I always find your articles interesting. Keep kicking butt and challenging the hype machine.

I've got this message twice today - one reader wrote that I hate JavaScript, and David goes easier on me - he says that I dislike it. Please read my answer over here: http://yakovfain.javadevelopersjournal.com/i_do_not_love_or_hate_program...

Reminder: I write about enterprise software development.

I totally agreed with your predictions. Ruby on Rails is a neat framework but it will never be adopted by the enterprise. AJAX is just a buzzword/fad geeks jump on the bandwagon for a couple of years before the next shiny thing comes along. RIA will get slowly adopted but Flex will be the tool of choice (not AJAX).

At first read predicting the demise of AJAX while hopping on the RIA bandwagon seemed contradictory. But digging further I can tell that you are implying that Flex will win out over AJAX (at least for Java developers). While I think there is merit to perspective, I'm going to go on the record now stating that you couldn't be more wrong.

If I had to guess, your bias stems from your dislike of JavaScript. I think your bias is missplaced and many organizations are demonstrating some very powerful uses of the language. Browser incompatibilities are growing fewer and the API more extensive.

But, I would concur that 2007 will determine which direction the industry will take for the long haul.

There also seems to be an abcence of good proofreading as well as programming.

Open sourcing Java won't matter - it's a non-event. Ruby and Ruby on Rails won't make it in 2007 either. I still do not see a compelling reason to switch. AJAX hype is stronger than I thought mainly because of the life support offered by frameworks like GWT. But still, I'm not going to recommend enterprise IT shops make any serious investments in AJAX.