From: Brian Candler <b.candler@...>
Date: 2010-10-07T16:56:47+09:00
Subject: Re: ODBC app in Ruby - I don't believe it.

Ed Reed wrote:
> I spent a lot of time last night looking at all the pieces that need to 
> be 'snapped together' to get, what I think should be, a simple db cgi 
> app to work and I just can't figure out how it can be worth it. I 
> appreciate your's and everyone else's sentiments but I need to create a 
> working project that is stable and supportable.

That, to me, is the *benefit* of going with the Rails opinionated 
design. Any other Rails developer who comes along to your project in 6 
months time will have a head-start on how your code is structured. But I 
guess you could say the same about any application design environment.

> It needs to work with 
> databases where a Ruby api will never exist for them, because they're 
> not mainstream enough.

But they do have an ODBC connector? Then I'd have thought that ruby-odbc 
should work, and there's a standard plugin 
(activerecord-sqlserver-adapter)

> It's unacceptable to say that Windows is a difficult 
> development platform.

Well I'm sorry, but it is. It's a total pain. Stuff which is just a 
"./configure && make" away in Linux is an absolute nightmare to get 
working under Windows.

> Over 90% of all businesses are small businesses 
> and most small businesses don't have the budget or knowledge to setup 
> and maintain a linux backend. I don't wanna get into an OS war here, 
> there's no point to it. Small businesses use Windows, period. 90% is a 
> number that is too huge to ignore.

Then you are free to find a tool which is more suitable to your 
environment - MS Access perhaps?

Nobody on this list is really going to give you a hard sell on Rails, 
because this is not a Rails mailing list anyway :-) And finding a 
technology which you are comfortable with is obviously a choice which 
depends on your particular circumstances.

Regards,

Brian.
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