Ask HN: Django or ROR or CakePHP or else should I choose? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Django or ROR or CakePHP or else should I choose?

4 points_pcpe13 comments

I am a computer major student and want to start working on my own idea, on which may be I could build a startup later on. Mostly, my ideas are web based so I haven't thought much about going to Python or going to C++ or anything else. I am not sure about which of the above Django/ROR/CakePhp/etc to chose! There are alot more, it's just that I found these popular than others. After searching inside hackernews posts and comments, I found myself even more confused in choosing between these.

What do you guys suggest me to use?

And yes, it's not about only one application! As I want to build my own startup, it also concerns about how much will I learn from them, which may help me in my other startups to come!

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I would suggest Django over RoR; RoR contains more magic (but RoR seems to offer more convenience for someone experienced with RoR since it is based on convention vs configuration.) Also, I have heard that Rails changes very fastly sometimes, so you may have difficulty catching up if you are a student (but at the same time, it has a livelier community, so that might be a plus -- check out http://rubyweekly.com/ ).

With Django, the core structure is simpler to understand, and you may continue working on your site after a few week's break easily. This is a little bit like the difference bt. Python and Ruby/Perl; I find Ruby/Perl more flexible (there is more than one way to do it), Python to be more strict (there is usually a single best way).

To sum up, I don't think it would make a difference if you were a full time developer working on the project every day, but for a student, occasionally working on a project, Django would be easier to get accustomed to, after not working on the project for a given time.

PS: I suggest you to take a look at Flask (Python) or Sinatra (Ruby) too; they might be easier to start with. Your experience with Flask would help with Django, too (or vice versa).

That's really an awesome advice. I will definitely take this in mind.

I have the solution to your problem:

http://www.coboloncogs.org/INDEX.HTM

All joking aside, you can be successful with any of the frameworks you mentioned, and any number of other ones. My personal default recommendation is Groovy on Grails, but I can't say that it's objectively better than, say, Ruby on Rails. It's just... groovy.

I'd say - it doesn't matter. As a person who faced the same choice two years ago, I went with RoR. Mostly because of the bigger community around it. By now I mostly consider it great because it is basically a best-practise sharing example. Any of these frameworks expose you to currently brewing technologies - and that helped me a lot along the way.

Thank you for sharing your experience. :)

If you are new, I suggest RoR, since, it takes all the nitty griddy details out of the way, and lets you focus on the real outcome of your app. Take a Ruby Crash Course and jump into Rails.

Probably, I will start with RoR, at least it seems so now. :)

If that's the route you're going, I highly suggest Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails Tutorial. The entire text is available for free, but you can pay for a PDF version and accompanying screencasts.

http://ruby.railstutorial.org/

If you are going to build in PHP there is no need for any kind of framework. Especially CakePHP. A simple PHP framework can be built in a day that for your needs is a lot better than any existing framework.

As far as language choice: this question gets asked like every day. The answer is always the same. What do you feel more comfortable with? Once you answer that, you have your answer.

The problem is I am a noob! I don't have much experience than a little C, C++ and PHP.

what languages / frameworks do your friends use?

Use that and ask for their advice.

it feels bad to say, most of the people/friends around me don't know any more than php/mysql/javascript or like this

RoR

It's not Rails so much, it's Ruby.

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