# Newbie: RoR good for "Kayak-type" site

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ror-good-for-kayak-type-site/194859>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 12, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ror-good-for-kayak-type-site/194859 "2010-09-12T16:02:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/acuitycorp)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ror-good-for-kayak-type-site/194859/1 "2010-09-12T16:02:13Z")

</div>

Hi there,

We’re a startup looking. A good usage model of our site is something  
like the travel site Kayak. Lots of searching of database with  
“stale” price data, with live crawling of many sites (for lower  
prices), and various different views of information - a product will  
appear in a results list, a full page overlay with details, and the  
same product will appear on a map. Kinda like Kayak. Ajaxy.

Given the constraints of: performance is important (lots of data  
sources merged), we’re not familiar with the language (but our team  
has not “core” web-framework under its belt, and some of the  
programmers are more craftsman than architect in their thinking,  
would RoR be a good fit? Alternatives (so far I’m looking at  
Django).

We’ve watched some videos, checked it out, but we’re in a position  
where we need advice and may just go with it.

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/acuitycorp)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ror-good-for-kayak-type-site/194859/2 "2010-09-14T21:24:30Z")

</div>

acuitycorp wrote:

> Hi there,
> 
> We’re a startup looking. A good usage model of our site is something  
> like the travel site Kayak. Lots of searching of database with  
> “stale” price data, with live crawling of many sites (for lower  
> prices), and various different views of information - a product will  
> appear in a results list, a full page overlay with details, and the  
> same product will appear on a map. Kinda like Kayak. Ajaxy.

That sounds like a reasonably good fit for Rails.

> Given the constraints of: performance is important (lots of data  
> sources merged), we’re not familiar with the language (but our team  
> has not “core” web-framework under its belt, and some of the  
> programmers are more craftsman than architect in their thinking,  
> would RoR be a good fit?

What languages _are_ you familiar with? Why are you looking at a Web  
framework in a language your developers are not familiar with?

What do your developers have to say about this?

What attracted you to Rails in the first place, if you’re not familiar  
with it or Ruby?

> Alternatives (so far I’m looking at  
> Django).
> 
> We’ve watched some videos, checked it out, but we’re in a position  
> where we need advice and may just go with it.

I’d certainly recommend Rails…but you might expect that here. 🙂

> Thanks.

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/acuitycorp)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ror-good-for-kayak-type-site/194859/3 "2010-09-14T21:39:33Z")

</div>

few thoughts… I’ve been a ColdFusion dev for years and finally  
decided to make the move to something better. I actually started with  
Django, Google’s App engine, a few recommendations from friends lured  
me in. After about 2 weeks I got pretty fed up with Django + App  
Engine, mainly bec the community wasn’t very helpful. I then went to  
Rails and haven’t look back since. Rails (it’s only been 3 weeks of  
experience) has a stronger community which makes the barrier of  
learning the framework a lot easier. It also seems to be the popular  
choice these days which is comforting in terms of being worth the time  
investment. All the plug-ins have been a surprise too! The plugins  
actually work and are supported by the community.

love it!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/acuitycorp)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ror-good-for-kayak-type-site/194859/4 "2010-09-14T22:25:48Z")

</div>

I am about 1.5 years in to rails and have to say even with catching up  
with  
the changes on 3.0, the tools and way of thinking of this community is a  
reason why I am still writing code and excited because for some reason  
here  
on rails even when I hit problems I know there is light at end of tunnel  
and  
that I am becoming more efficient and able to do more cool things faster  
w  
better quality. Not that rails necessarily has a monopoly on this but I  
think it is a good bet.

In my experience, though - contrary to what I hear about the low  
‘barrier to  
entry’, for me to get adept, the learning curve is steeper than in other  
languages/frameworks… and this is because to actually be good in  
rails  
you have to learn the conventions and what is available. Up until Rails  
that  
was not my style. I have to say in .NET I just hacked my way through for  
years while MS kept vomiting up new technologies and you could never  
figure  
out what was going to last and what disappear - no love or excitement  
for me  
to master it.

I dont get such a feeling with rails, things change but there seems to  
be a  
better evolving logic of the community as a whole. I guess one could  
hack  
their way through it, but then if that is what is desired, may as well  
just  
use php or something, because Rails is about the conventions — that’s  
what  
makes it beautiful to my eye. Every time I am hating life on a project  
is  
generally when I am fighting the way things were intended.

If you are open to start anywhere this is a good place IMO.

David

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@acuitycorp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/acuitycorp)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ror-good-for-kayak-type-site/194859/5 "2010-09-16T14:28:35Z")

</div>

Thanks David and nobosh.

For us there are too many moving parts to decide only analytically on  
something like this, but  
your personal experiences are probably going to be similar to what we  
encounter - and so  
more valuable than a feature list.

What I understand is that it will probly take our devs longer to get  
up to speed than something else,  
because of the philosophy of doing things is more formed here and to  
be successful you should get down  
with that philosophy. But also the community is strong and growing  
and has many other benefits.

Cool. We made our decision - we’re going with RoR.