From: ptkwt@... (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2004-01-18T15:25:01+09:00
Subject: Re: is Ruby the right language for these projects?

In article <200401171653.47863.ruby@hitmedia.com>,
Ruby Baby  <ruby@hitmedia.com> wrote:
>
>I just finally really understood OOP only a month ago.  It took a few books, 
>but I really "get" it now, and love it.
>
>I started learning Ruby then, as a way to force myself into OOP style, instead 
>of sticking with PHP and accidently slipping back into procedural style.  
>(What better way to learn object-thinking than with a language that is ALL 
>objects?)
>
>So now it's time to start my two big projects:
>
>#1 - a web-store.  (http://www.cdbaby.com - It's pretty popular.  A lot of 
>traffic.)   Right now the code is 5 years of spaghetti, started when I only 
>knew HTML and slowly built with PHP as I was learning it.   It's such a mess 
>that it needs a total overhaul, which I'm really excited about.
>
>It's not your usual embedded-bits-in-HTML, it's fully 100% PHP-driven now, 
>with all HTML being pulled from templates dynamically merging with MySQL 
>data.
>
>I'm ready to re-do it from scratch, using whatever language and tools are 
>best.

I'll leave this one to others to answer - web programming isn't my area of 
expertise.

(BTW: I just heard about cdbaby a few weeks ago - cool site :)

>
>
>#2 - a standalone app for downloading and converting-or-burning hifi audio 
>files (like WAV).   A little free GUI program that would have to run on 
>Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, using each OS's native GUI look & feel.
>

Why not?  Seems like a good Ruby project.  The main problem is to choose a 
GUI toolkit that will work on all three.  It sounds like wxRuby (wxWindows 
GUI toolkit) would be the one to use in this case: it runs on all three 
platforms and uses native widgets (as I recall).  Note: wxRuby's still a 
bit young, but it's probably usable at this point and it's being actively 
developed.

>
>
>Neither project is any big rush.  The DOING & LEARNING is more of the point 
>than the end-product.  (That's why I don't just hire an expert.  I like to 
>learn for myself.)
>
>I *like* Ruby.  I don't mind that it's not so popular.  I don't need to 
>impress any boss or investors.  I'd *like* to use it for both of these 
>projects...
>
>.. but I can't tell if I would be making a big mistake, in the end.
>
>Though I want to learn and use Ruby for these, I shouldn't do it if the 
>end-result will not also be the best.
>
>SO:
>
>Should I stick with PHP for the web-store, but rewrite it with an OOP style?
>Should I hire someone that knows C or Python for the standalone audio app?

Regarding the audio app: Initially you said there is no rush for this, but 
you're considering hiring someone.  Is this going to be a commercial app?

If there's no big rush, I think wxRuby would fit the bill for you (see:
http://rubyforge.org/projects/wxruby/ ).  I qualify the statement because 
the wxWindows bindings for Ruby are still young, so you may need to work 
with the project leaders to help iron out any problems you (might) find.
But like I said above, wxRuby is an active project and they seem to be 
pretty motivated.

Phil