From: Moses Hohman <mmhohman@...>
Date: 2004-10-08T22:28:38+09:00
Subject: Re: rails vs Java Struts

Yes, I wouldn't take Struts to be the shining example of Java MVC 
toolkits, even if it is the most popular.

I also can't claim to know the entire range of them intimately, but I 
have been liking the Spring Framework's MVC stuff, even if it does use 
XML configuration files : )

-Your model can be your domain object, or not, depending on which you 
think is a better choice
-You define how your action return value maps to your views (so that 
you don't have to define success and failure views for every 
controller)
-Implementing actions does not require implementing them one per class 
(although often I do this, but that doesn't seem like such a terrible 
thing to me)
-Spring MVC is also view agnostic, so you can pick the view technology 
you like the best, the layout thing is left up to you (tiles, sitemesh, 
whatever you like, and by the way tiles does not require use of XML 
files, only if you are doing something fairly complicated do you need 
them)
-And, in the greater Spring framework, there are some nice 
simplifications for JDBC access that can simplify this code as well, 
although these are not part of the MVC framework. The greater framework 
also provides simplification for Hibernate, JDO and other ORM tools. 
Technically I don't think an MVC framework should choose an unrelated 
technology for you like that. Does Rails allow you to swap out 
something in place of ActiveRecords? I have very limited experience 
with rails (I've gone through the basics of the installation and 
tutorial only).

Moses

On Oct 8, 2004, at 6:20 AM, David Heinemeier Hansson wrote:

> I hope that helped a bit. Have in mind that I'm pretty biased, though 
> :). Struts personifies much of my animosity towards the Java/J2EE 
> world. It has XML-files up to here, duplication and repetition coming 
> out of the wazoo, and very little to show for it when it's done.
>
> What I _do_ like about Struts is how it some how got positioned itself 
> as the default controller in the majority of run-of-the-mill J2EE 
> apps. That's a freaking awesome piece of PR work there. I'm still 
> learning on that account ;)
>