Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 10:18 am
This is a nice opinion, but it's very inaccurate.The Ruby scripting language is every bit as flexible as PHP as far as I know... and PHP doesn't come with an effective framework solution that rails so nicely lays out. So on the pure basis of language vs language there probably isn't much difference, but the framework and development nuances are what rails is all about. So with that in mind, why wouldn't you switch over to Rails?
The Ruby language is very flexible, and contrary to popular hyped opinion it is not *just* a web language. It's a very powerful general purpose language which is why I started to learn it to begin with. Rails was a huge boost to the language but PHP has responded to it very well and there are now dozens of frameworks to choose from. CakePHP, Symfony and Seagull are the three I'm most familiar with. The Zend Framework and ezComponents are another two more flexible "component" like libraries you can even pick and choose from. PHP actually has far more framework choice then Ruby...
As for why I wouldn't switch to Rails (or perhaps you mean Ruby)...
I've invested a lot of time into gaining experience with PHP. I know its nuances, its quirks, how to apply it in terms of user requirements and resource constraints, and lots more besides. In short, although I know the Ruby basics I lack experience in using it. Such experience can easily take a year or more of use to pick up. Another reason is FAQs. If I have a PHP related question I have a wealth of resources to turn to. The excellent PHP Manual (one of the best I've seen for a language), these forums, tons of articles and tutorials, scores of developer blogs, and any number of websites in general. Where does Ruby or RoR stand in that regard? Finally there is my personal goals. I develop free or open source software. Ruby and RoR are not widely available on hosts and there remains question marks over performance compared to PHP which has had years to proliferate and pick up third party support.
One final point - development nuances? I've converted to Agile Development over the last year (much to my immense satisfaction). PHP can have the Agile process applied just as easily as Ruby. If you mean frameworks and fw approach - PHP has even more choice.
At the end of the day however - these are all my personal opinions. Ruby is an attractive pure OOP language suitable for many uses. I just find PHP to be far more convenient as a personal choice. Convenience is a powerful motivation to stay with a language rather than jumping into another which has a similar purpose but requires a big time investment to learn properly.