Fear and loathing at Railsconf | Hacker News Reader

Fear and loathing at Railsconf

gilesbowkett.blogspot.com

11 pointsbdfh429 comments

That'd be a good one... _whyConf. Free tab of LSD given at the entrance to enhance the experience, probably :-)

What a bunch of totally irrelevant nonsense.

Ruby on Rails, like all other frameworks and languages, is just a tool you can use to achieve some end.

If it achieve's your end faster and at lower cost than some other tool then it's definitely something to consider. If it doesn't then it's not.

All this nonsense about whether it's wierd or whether it somehow relates to hookers is just a total waste of time.

It's just a frameword guys. If it works for you use it. If it doesn't work for you don't.

I mean. That's all there is to it.

Interesting.

Some quibbles:

He says, " ... he also confused the voice of one individual with the voice of the Ruby community. " There is no such thing as the Ruby community. There are multiple Ruby communities.

Also, I'm pretty sure RejectConf was first held at a RubyConf.

And the Fringe conf looks no more fringe-y than most regional Ruby confs (i.e., not at all). Ruby could use a truly out-there conference, but since it would be hosting people most Rubyists never heard of, it would get little traction.

I was at RailsConf as a Rails outsider (and there were a lot of us). Does Rails want to go mainstream? There are only so many Ruby hackers out there; and a lot more Java/corporate programmers.

I think the better question is if the Java/corporate programmers (I am one by day) want to ride the Rails?

JRuby may lead many Java die-hards over to Ruby, while still being able to use their Java libs, packaging, and deployment tools

This is how RailsConf can become a huge money-maker: just spin it as training for Java/.NET developers and their managers.

My company is so firmly entrenched in Java the only reason Rails is not completely dismissed is that one of the senior technical gurus sees its potential (and likes it).

The only reason I can see that there isn't "Learn Rails in 5 days" training for $2,495 is that there is not a market for it yet - since the managers don't want/need Rails programmers there is no need for over-priced training. And from my experience, you can't being to touch on Rails in 5 days. Even if you could, after the 3rd day, your brain becomes numb.

Remember, Java is safe. Java won in the Enterprise. Who could have predicated whatever percent of SMBs and Fortune 500 companies would have Java running every which where? Rails is a big step out of Java programmers comfort zone.

Haha.. +1 to the Dead Kennedys video :)

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