As a beginner developer, I found myself feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by the vast number of decisions I had to make while working with the JavaScript stack. From selecting a frontend framework to choosing a backend solution, the process of building a full-stack project seemed endless. That’s why I decided to give Ruby on Rails a try, and I’ve been much happier with my learning journey since. In this article, I share my experience with switching to Rails as a beginner developer and how it has simplified my journey, allowing me to focus on learning and ideas rather than constantly researching and deciding between different options.
I’d love to hear from other developers, especially beginners, about their experiences with the JavaScript or Ruby stack and any alternative technologies they have explored.
@devaniljr I enjoyed the article - thanks! I liked that you didn’t try to say “Rails is better than JavaScript” or other clickbait statements but instead listed the tangible benefits that a stable and powerful framework such as Rails has, while also not being afraid to suggest that there’s less innovation there.
That is why the innovative and crazy people have left the Ruby on Rails community.
As someone who likes to consider myself relatively innovative and crazy, and as a dedicated Rails dev, I do take exception to this statement though
I think the Rails community has loads of innovative people and innovation. However, that doesn’t mean that the Rails community are constantly trying to reinvent the wheel - instead it’s more about how to incrementally improve Rails and use it in innovative ways. I think a lot of the tech inside Exercism is a good testament to that - there’s lots of original stuff that we do (analyzers, representers, the whole online editor infrastructure) - all of which is grounded in Rails, but uses other technologies around it to be.
Anyway, I think this is a helpful and interesting post. Thanks! Good luck with your Rails journey and feel free to peruse the Exercism website repo if you’re looking for a pretty solid and interesting Rails project (if I do say so myself )
