# Calling all those who have experience with Rails in industry **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 16, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/calling-all-those-who-have-experience-with-rails-in-industry/132080 "2008-03-16T16:51:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timhunter)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/calling-all-those-who-have-experience-with-rails-in-industry/132080/1 "2008-03-16T16:51:15Z")
Hi, I am currently doing a research/development project with Rails as part of my Computer Science degree (my final year project). I have been looking for those who have had previous experience with Rails in industry. Using Rails to create applications for a business, or using Rails at work to create applications. Attached is a txt document with a few questions, designed to get the information I am interested in. Those of you willing to participate are more than welcome to just give me a brief overview on your experiences. I would be most grateful if those interested would fill in the txt file and then send their answers to my e-mail; removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ANY feedback received would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance to any of those who help out! ---
**Author:** ![timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timhunter)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/calling-all-those-who-have-experience-with-rails-in-industry/132080/2 "2008-03-17T12:42:30Z")
Tim H. wrote: > Hi, > > I am currently doing a research/development project with Rails as part > of my Computer Science degree (my final year project). > > I have been looking for those who have had previous experience with > Rails in industry. Using Rails to create applications for a business, or > using Rails at work to create applications. > > Attached is a txt document with a few questions, designed to get the > information I am interested in. Those of you willing to participate are > more than welcome to just give me a brief overview on your experiences. > > I would be most grateful if those interested would fill in the txt file > and then send their answers to my e-mail; > > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > > ANY feedback received would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks in advance to any of those who help out! Thank you to Fred Any others? ---
**Author:** ![timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timhunter)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/calling-all-those-who-have-experience-with-rails-in-industry/132080/3 "2008-03-17T18:31:10Z")
Tim H. wrote: > Any others? E-mail on the way. ---
**Author:** ![timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timhunter)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/calling-all-those-who-have-experience-with-rails-in-industry/132080/4 "2008-03-19T18:46:38Z")
Thank you to those you have replied! Any others willing to participate? Ar Chron wrote: > Tim H. wrote: > > > Any others? > > E-mail on the way. ---
**Author:** ![timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@timhunter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/timhunter)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/calling-all-those-who-have-experience-with-rails-in-industry/132080/5 "2008-03-29T16:40:53Z")
Ruby on Rails Questions Which programming languages have you previously used in indursty? I have used FORTRAN, C, C+, IDL, Perl, shell scripting, Lisp, VB, C# and Java. What type of programs have you written in Ruby on Rails for use within industry? (i.e. any program that is used within a business, to perform a function etc.) Real-time information management tool, for in-house use at a power- generation company. What made you decide on using Rails to create these programs? (assuming it was your choice) Developer time was my most critical resource, due to low budget, minimal staff and a tight deadline. Ruby and Rails allow developers to be extremely efficient at producing working code, while offering a not- terrible tradeoff in terms of runtime efficiency. How successful were these programs? (how useful were they in the end) Very succcessful. The application is mission-critical and used widely by many groups within the company. Did you feel you made the right decision in using Rails? Would you have perhaps had a better experience using a different langauge? Absolutely the right decision. No other language and framework could possibly have resulted in an equal (or better) product being produced more quickly and with less bugs. How do you see the future of Ruby on Rails, as a freelancer? As all things, RoR is evolving, which is a good thing. Second- generation frameworks such as Merb, which are faster, more stable and less buggy than Rails while offering the same (or better) functionality and minimal syntactic differences are the future. In addition, the presence of high-performance web servers and “best practices” books for deployment ensure that RoR and its related frameworks will be around for a long time (or what passes for it in technology these days). Do you see yourself using Rails much in the future? Yes. I use Ruby for anything more complicated than shell scripting. In both my professional and personal life, I use Rails as simply the easiest way to present database records. How does Rails compare to the other languages you’ve used? Rails is not a language, it’s a framework. Ruby is a language. That said, Ruby is the second-most powerful language I’ve used (the first would be Lisp), while at the same time being immensely more practical than Lisp in terms of portability, libraries, and frameworks. Rails is the most powerful web app framework I’ve used. I think it’s clearly demonstrated how far you can get simply by establishing conventions and strictly adhering to design best-practices. Rails is far superior to previous frameworks, and the Rails clones that are popping up in other languages all owe a debt of gratitude to DHH and the Rails core team. On Mar 19, 1:46 pm, Tim H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)