From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2007-10-05T11:47:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Recent Criticism about Ruby (Scalability, etc.)

Chad Perrin wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 05, 2007 at 02:52:05AM +0900, MenTaLguY wrote:
>> On Thu, 4 Oct 2007 06:19:19 +0900, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> wrote:
>>> In other words, I was assuming reasonably good code as a baseline,
>>> and you were assuming reasonably bad code as a baseline.  These
>>> incompatible assumptions may be influenced by our respective work
>>> environments.
>> Yes, I think that's the crux of it.
>>
>>> I'll expand on my position, then:
>>>
>>>   1. Hire good programmers.
>>>
>>>   2. Have them write good code.
>>>
>>>   3. Throw hardware at the scaling problem, because your good code
>>>   written by good programmers can handle it.
>> Perhaps we've also got slightly different audiences in mind --
>> "hire good programmers" is not advice I'd normally give to a
>> programmer.
> 
> Adjusted for programmers:
> 
>   1. Be(come) a good programmer.
> 
>   2. Write good code.
> 
>   3. Let your boss throw hardware at the scaling problem, because the
>   good code you wrote as a good programmer can handle it.
> 
> Better?
> 

I'm with Jay on this one -- no matter *how* good the programmers and the 
code are, there are limits to scalability. Remember, I'm a performance 
engineer. ;)

Then again, there are much better ways to explain scalability and 
capacity planning than the way some authors do it. I won't mention any 
names, of course ....