From: Bil Kleb <Bil.Kleb@...>
Date: 2006-10-11T04:25:18+09:00
Subject: Ruby web ap FUD

I got the following internal email this morning; and
because I've only dabbled in Camping, Rails, and web aps
in general--I'm a floating-point number cruncher guy--I
thought I'd run it pass you before responding:

  I'm working on archiving [..] data for [a] project,
  and [the Principal Investigator] mentioned using Ruby
  as opposed to straight perl cgi.  I am a "data modeler"
  and have just branched into the perl cgi arena, due
  to [staffing issues].  (Basically, they don't have web
  programmers that can do anything other than ColdFusion).

  Anyway, I would like to meet with you to talk about Ruby
  and it's pros/cons in general, and possibly in relation
  to the project [mentioned above].

  I have heard that Ruby on Rails is only "easy" if your
  data model/schema is simple, and you only present one
  table's worth of info on a form.  I'll bring a copy of
  the E-R diagram to discuss, if that will help in determining
  in Ruby is the right language to use for this application.

  I also have the forms defined in html (used these for working
  with [the PI] in determining what metadata to capture).  It
  looks like I would have to "redo" all the html to use Ruby
  methods?

  I'm also interested in the "security" aspects of using Ruby.
  PHP (as opposed to ColdFusion) has been identified as having
  too many security issues and therefore not encouraged here,
  so I'm curious about Ruby/Ruby on Rails....

  Oh, and the database is implemented in Postgres.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed.

Regards,
--
Bil Kleb
http://fun3d.larc.nasa.gov