Michal Wallace: The other main advantage is the huge number of developers. Thanks to Microsoft’s reach, .NET is a much bigger pond than python. I can hire .NET developers anywhere, or if i want, I can get a job as a .NET developer. (The Java pond is bigger still, but Java always felt clunky to me.)
My first recommendation aligns with Aristotle's: diversify. I didn’t do any Perl in the past week, but I did do Python, PHP, Ruby, and JavaScript. In pond size terms, PHP is huge and growing. Ruby is nascent but exploding.
What I like about Ruby isn’t just the language, but that the community that surrounds this language tends to share these values. Pick up a random PHP package, and try to find the test cases. Where are the unit tests for netron?
Now, just try to submit a patch to Typo without a test case, I dare you. In fact, before making any choices, I’d suggest that you try the following: Check out Typo. Copy config/database.yml.example to config/database.yml, and tailor it based on your needs. Then create your databases. For mysql (for example):
mysql -p typo_dev < db/schema.mysql.sql
mysql -p typo_tests < db/schema.mysql.sql
Make sure that rake is at version 0.7.0 or later via rake -V, if not, execute sudo gem install rake.
Now type rake. You should successfully execute hundreds of tests.
To get a feel for how all this fits together, look at this patch — test cases, test data, and code, each has a place. The test cases can verify — at a very fine grained level — everything from the HTTP status codes, to the HTML that is returned, to the results of XPath queries.
Every part of this patch was developed solely using VIM.
The only downside to Rails is that you have to find a hosting provider that supports — at a minimum — FastCGI.
Got any recommendations? ;-)
For hosting, the folks at Site5 ( [link] ) seem good. I haven’t been with them long, but know smart folks who like them a lot, and they host rails nicely and inexpensively.
I can second the recommendation for Site5. The guys there are real Ruby on Rails enthusiasts and are actively supporting the easy installation of Typo for example.
I don’t think netron has test cases, and that’s a strike against it, but the thing is, I found maybe five other diagramming packages for .NET last night (mostly commercial). Python has one or two half-finished ones. That’s what I mean by a bigger pond.
As for source control and unit testing, the .NET world supports both. They’re just not built into the express IDEs, and that’s fine. I’m used to running my unit tests and cvs commands in another window anyway.
You have a point about the Ruby community though. I looked at rails first and honestly don’t see much technical difference between it and the tools I’ve been working on myself for the past few years, though I admit there’s a good chance I’m blinded by a case of Not Invented Here.
I’m personally a TextDrive guy, but TextDrive accounts are hit-or-miss in my experience. I’ve got several accounts on servers that have had what seems like an eternity of uptime. I don’t think some of them gone down yet at all. And I’ve got another account on one of their much older servers that’s gotta be going down, oh... sometimes at least once a week. I don’t think they’re putting any new accounts on the old servers though, so if you end up on one of the good servers, you’re golden. And once you’re there, you have tons of freedom to do whatever you need to. Basically anything that doesn’t require root, you can pretty much do.
I’d be happy to chime in by saying that PLANET ARGON is the official hosting sponsor of the Typo project, and we offer Typo hosting as low as $3/month. There’s no reason why you couldn’t also host your Typo blog on one of our mainline hosting packages as well.
For the record, we support FCGI, SCGI and now mongrel, as well as LigHTTPD. :)
Now if you have a home in multiple ponds, our ecosystem extends to PHP, Perl, Python and Java as well.
I agree with Sam Ruby: a successful tech is a diversified one. You can’t always depend on a new millennium to justify sticking with one and only one programming language. This last week I worked with Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, and Ruby. I had...
I hate ruby on rails. That’s right. I said it. I have no complaints about ruby - it’s a beautiful, expressive language. And I can’t say there’s anything particularly wrong with rails. It’s just that whenever I start looking at it, I want to start...
I’ve bought the CodeMonster plan from DreamHost a few months ago. I’m really impressed by the excellent service, fast replies and good web panel (not really user friendly, but still great comparing it with Italian alternative hosting providers).
So, you might have a look at the DreamHost offers... :)