Can you please explain the difference between PHP and RubyOnRails.
I am trying to get a web-based application developed for an online
personality test, and
would like something secure, has database abilities, graphing
abilities, backend calculation capabilities. Please advise! I was told
to have the program developed as a Wordpress plugin using PHP. Is this
passe, or a good idea? Thank you.
On Sun, Jun 19, 2011 at 6:37 PM, Margaret [email protected] wrote:
Can you please explain the difference between PHP and RubyOnRails.
PHP is a programming language; Ruby on Rails is a web application
development platform using the Ruby language.
I am trying to get a web-based application developed for an online
personality test, and
would like something secure, has database abilities, graphing
abilities, backend calculation capabilities. Please advise! I was told
to have the program developed as a Wordpress plugin using PHP.
“told to” ? So I’m guessing you’re not a developer yourself? In that
case the most important thing is to find a developer that you trust,
regardless of what language/platform s/he uses.
Is this passe, or a good idea? Thank you.
Your application sounds perfect for Rails. The idea of creating it as a
plugin for Wordpress sounds like welding a basket on a submarine to
wash lettuce.
But see my first point above 
Good luck!
Hassan S. ------------------------ [email protected]
twitter: @hassan
On Jun 19, 2011, at 9:37 PM, Margaret wrote:
Can you please explain the difference between PHP and RubyOnRails.
I am trying to get a web-based application developed for an online
personality test, and
would like something secure, has database abilities, graphing
abilities, backend calculation capabilities. Please advise! I was told
to have the program developed as a Wordpress plugin using PHP. Is this
passe, or a good idea? Thank you.
Some basic terminology first:
PHP is a language, Ruby is a language. CakePHP or Zend Framework are
examples of PHP Web frameworks, and Rails is a Ruby Web framework.
There are many others, in both languages. These languages have a lot
of following in the Web development community, because they are
dynamic (flexible) and there are great hooks into traditional Web
workflows. Other languages include Python, C#, even C itself (which is
the mother language of Ruby and PHP – they’re both written at the
lowest level in C).
Wordpress is a blogging application, written in PHP. It is not,
strictly speaking, the same kind of thing as Cake or Zend. Instead,
you could use either of those frameworks to create an application
similar to Wordpress.
A good programmer could implement your “elevator pitch” requirements
using nearly any Web-friendly language or toolkit, and this choice of
framework or language should be made by the person who is doing the
work. It’s their productivity that will be impacted most by this
choice, not the possibility of meeting your deliverables.
Unless you are the one who will be coding this, I recommend that you
write the clearest possible explanation of your business goals, and
put it out for bid. Throw out the highest and lowest bid, and use only
as one tiny factor in your decision which language or framework the
final product is developed in. You do have a certain responsibility to
yourself to choose a popular development style, simply because your
prime developer may not be the person who ends up maintaining the
thing. You want to stay in one of the larger tents so you can hire
someone to pick up the pieces later.
Walter