Rails - Sep 2005 - a pictorial contrast between Java web development and Rails

I''m project manager for a large medical industry project.  Due to
outside collaborations we''ve had Java (+EJB+Struts+Hibernate+etc.)
thrust upon us for this project.  The political tides are becoming
choppy and now there''s a strong political and technical case building
for moving from the Java stack to Rails.

Our project technical lead did a quick conversion of a vertical slice of
the Java version of the project over to Rails and found a 20:1 reduction
in code size.  I''m a Rails fan but even I was surprised at the
difference in code size.  This is code written by long-time Java
programmers, converted to Rails by a guy who knew a little Ruby and
learned Rails over the course of a few days.

Anyway, he wrote a quick commentary on his personal site that I thought
some of you might find amusing, even if just because of the other Java
web vs. Rails comparison he conducted -- and was able to capture for
the rest of us to see:

   http://www.garbett.org/?q=node/25

Now that''s a savings that I haven''t heard anyone else talking
about :-)

(btw, thanks to Dave Thomas, Andy Hunt, DHH and the others for making
this possible!)

Rick
-- 
 http://www.rickbradley.com    MUPRN: 599
                       |  well specified and
   random email haiku  |  well known. File and Edit
                       |  menus, and all that.

On 21.9.2005, at 22.03, Rick Bradley wrote:

>
> Now that''s a savings that I haven''t heard anyone else
talking
> about :-)
>
>
But the Java pile clearly has scaled taller. And what''s Fowler doing  
in there, anyway?

//jarkko





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Jarkko Laine wrote:
> On 21.9.2005, at 22.03, Rick Bradley wrote:
>>
>> Now that''s a savings that I haven''t heard anyone else
talking  about :-)
> 
> But the Java pile clearly has scaled taller. 
They''re both installed on a common platform.  The Java pile''s
just
loading it more heavily.

--
Alex

* Jarkko Laine (jarkko-k1O+Gnc6WpmsTnJN9+BGXg@public.gmane.org) [050921
15:10]:
> >Now that''s a savings that I haven''t heard anyone else
talking
> >about :-)
> 
> But the Java pile clearly has scaled taller. And what''s Fowler
doing
> in there, anyway?
Ah, so there is an area where Java truly does scale easier than
Ruby/Rails!

As for Fowler, I''ll have to ask Shawn, but I''m betting his
take is that
you don''t have to implement Fowler''s various Enterprise
patterns in
Rails -- just read about them in the Rails book, as they''re already
implemented.(?)

Rick
-- 
 http://www.rickbradley.com    MUPRN: 298
                       |  you copy and paste
   random email haiku  |  the URL that the line-break
                       |  doesn''t cut the URL short.

or do:

def fmtString(format,number)
   p format.gsub(/#/){ number.slice!(0,1) }
end

which produces exactly the same result as:

def fmtString(format,number)
   format.split('''').each {|c| print(c==''#'' ?
number.slice!(0,1) : c) }
   print "\n"
end

I''m sure there are even more concise ways do to that.

Am 21.09.2005 um 21:03 schrieb Rick Bradley:
> I''m project manager for a large medical industry project.  Due to
> outside collaborations we''ve had Java (+EJB+Struts+Hibernate+etc.)
> thrust upon us for this project.  The political tides are becoming
> choppy and now there''s a strong political and technical case
building
> for moving from the Java stack to Rails.
>
> Our project technical lead did a quick conversion of a vertical  
> slice of
> the Java version of the project over to Rails and found a 20:1  
> reduction
> in code size.  I''m a Rails fan but even I was surprised at the
> difference in code size.  This is code written by long-time Java
> programmers, converted to Rails by a guy who knew a little Ruby and
> learned Rails over the course of a few days.
>
> Anyway, he wrote a quick commentary on his personal site that I  
> thought
> some of you might find amusing, even if just because of the other Java
> web vs. Rails comparison he conducted -- and was able to capture for
> the rest of us to see:
>
>    http://www.garbett.org/?q=node/25
>
> Now that''s a savings that I haven''t heard anyone else
talking
> about :-)
>
> (btw, thanks to Dave Thomas, Andy Hunt, DHH and the others for making
> this possible!)
>
> Rick
> -- 
>  http://www.rickbradley.com    MUPRN: 599
>                        |  well specified and
>    random email haiku  |  well known. File and Edit
>                        |  menus, and all that.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

At 11:51 PM +0200 9/21/05, Thomas Fuchs wrote:
>I''m sure there are even more concise ways do to that.
Seeing the kinds of cruft that the Perl community has endured
in pursuit of ultra-terse code, I implore you not to go there...

-r
-- 
email: rdm-go8te9J4rpw@public.gmane.org; phone: +1 650-873-7841
http://www.cfcl.com        - Canta Forda Computer Laboratory
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In article <20050921201300.GQ21383@rerun>, rick-
xSCPAUIMY+WN9aS15agKxg-XMD5yJDbdMReXY1tMh2IBg@public.gmane.org
says...
> As for Fowler, I''ll have to ask Shawn, but I''m betting
his take is that
> you don''t have to implement Fowler''s various Enterprise
patterns in
> Rails -- just read about them in the Rails book, as they''re
already
> implemented.(?)
Also: I''m only partway through Enterprise Patterns, but I stopped 
reading the Agile patterns halfway through, as there''s simply no need 
for the vast majority of them in Ruby.  They''re just
"workarounds"
(adaptations, really) for the restrictions imposed by static typing and 
Java''s style of polymorphism.  Ditto for many of the GoF patterns.

I wouldn''t be surprised to find the same is true of Enterprise
Patterns,
as many are just aggregations of the simpler patterns.

-- 
Jay Levitt                | 
Wellesley, MA             | I feel calm.  I feel ready.  I can only
Faster: jay at jay dot fm | conclude that''s because I don''t
have a
http://www.jay.fm         | full grasp of the situation. - Mark Adler

On Sep 21, 2005, at 5:51 PM, Thomas Fuchs wrote:
> or do:
>
> def fmtString(format,number)
>   p format.gsub(/#/){ number.slice!(0,1) }
> end
gsub taking a block is one of the most beautiful things
you will ever cast your eyes upon.  A thing of beauty.
Watch it here in glorious action ...

-- 
Scott Barron
Lunchbox Software
http://lunchboxsoftware.com
http://lunchroom.lunchboxsoftware.com
http://rubyi.st

> gsub taking a block is one of the most beautiful things
> you will ever cast your eyes upon.  A thing of beauty.
> Watch it here in glorious action ...
It''s incredibly useful for even larger things. Here''s the
linkize
method from the forthcoming i2 wiki:

def linkize(body, existing_titles)
  body.gsub(Version::PAGE_LINK) do
    title = $1
    if existing_titles.include?(title)
      link_to(title, page_url(:page_title => title), :class =>
"existingWikiWord")
    else
      content_tag("span", title + link_to("?",
page_url(:page_title =>
title)), :class => "newWikiWord")
    end
  end
end

God, I love Ruby.
--
David Heinemeier Hansson
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