# Suggestions for a masters dissertation **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 24, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986 "2007-03-24T17:09:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patcito)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986/1 "2007-03-24T17:09:57Z")
I am thinking about ideas for my masters dissertation in computer engineering and I am going to do it about RoR, any ideas please? I don’t know j2ee though so I can’t do a rails/j2ee comparison. thanx in advance Pat ---
**Author:** ![patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patcito)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986/2 "2007-03-24T17:39:06Z")
Hi Pat, Patrick A. wrote: > I am thinking about ideas for my masters dissertation in computer > engineering and I am going to do it about RoR, any ideas please? > I don’t know j2ee though so I can’t do a rails/j2ee comparison. No idea whether or not this would be appropriate for your curriculum, but I’ll throw it out. Your ‘don’t know j2ee’ could potentially be turned into an asset. Hypothesis: RoR is / will be to web application development what BASIC was to stand-alone application development. The introduction of BASIC and a cheap computing platform on which it could be used caused / enabled a dramatic increase in the number of people who could write programs to solve problems themselves. RoR and cheap hosting services are a direct analogy for the new computing platform, the web, and are having a similar impact. BASIC wasn’t intended to be an end-all-be-all computing language. Neither was RoR. BASIC was a DSL. Assembler was the ‘swiss army knife’, one tool fits all, choice of its day. RoR is a DSL. j2ee is today’s ‘swiss army knife’. If you want / need to do a comparison between RoR and J2EE, you could do it on the learning curves and impact on accessibility. Just a thought. Best regards, and good luck! Bill ---
**Author:** ![patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patcito)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986/3 "2007-03-24T21:18:54Z")
thanx a lot for your input Bill, I’m sure though that Rails can do everything J2ee can do at least on the web application development front don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patcito)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986/4 "2007-03-25T16:13:18Z")
On 3/25/07, Bill W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Java was designed to let your toaster talk to your refrigerator talk to your > grocer talk to your cell phone. So, J2ee can, almost by definition, do > anything Rails can do. As a DSL, Rails doesn’t aspire to doing ‘everything > j2ee can do’ on any front; web application development or otherwise. That’s > an un-win-able argument. The _very_ win-able argument is: pick the right > tool for the job. My suggestion was simply that Rails and BASIC are very > similar WRT their impact on the ability of folks who’ve not previously had > the capability to solve their own problems. It’s the 80-20 rule in action. ok, thanks a lot. I think your BASIC comparison is very good. Unfortunately I’m don’t know BASIC either. I’m more of a C/C++/PHP/Ruby guy but I guess I can investigate. Just for curiosity, could you give any quick example where J2EE is efficient and RoR is out of place? Thanks in advance Pat ---
**Author:** ![patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patcito)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986/5 "2007-03-25T16:27:21Z")
Java, and in turn, J2EE’s Security and Transaction Processing capabilities are superior to most other languages; if your application needs it. RoR has yet to prove itself in these two major categories yet. Most people and vendors know this and are doing things to exploit best of both. For example, Sun has invested in JRuby by hiring the developers. From what I know, they are very close to release 1.0 of JRuby. This would allow you to run RoR application within the same JVM that Java runs on and mix and match both according to your requirements. If you take a look at pre-release NetBeans 6.0, you can see that this is “mostly” working albeit a bit rough-around- the-edges. I believe that the core Ruby development team in Japan has been working on a speeding up Ruby, though I don’t know to what an extent. ---
**Author:** ![patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patcito)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986/6 "2007-03-25T00:31:09Z")
Hi Pat, Patrick A. wrote: > thanx a lot for your input Bill, You’re welcome. > I’m sure though that Rails can do everything J2ee > can do at least on the web application development > front don’t you think? Java was designed to let your toaster talk to your refrigerator talk to your grocer talk to your cell phone. So, J2ee can, almost by definition, do anything Rails can do. As a DSL, Rails doesn’t aspire to doing ‘everything j2ee can do’ on any front; web application development or otherwise. That’s an un-win-able argument. The _very_ win-able argument is: pick the right tool for the job. My suggestion was simply that Rails and BASIC are very similar WRT their impact on the ability of folks who’ve not previously had the capability to solve their own problems. It’s the 80-20 rule in action. hth, Bill ---
**Author:** ![patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@patcito](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/patcito)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestions-for-a-masters-dissertation/89986/7 "2007-03-25T17:00:25Z")
Bill W. wrote: > Java was designed to let your toaster talk to your refrigerator talk to > your > grocer talk to your cell phone. So, J2ee can, almost by definition, do > anything Rails can do. Modulo one incredible difference in code volume. > As a DSL, Rails doesn’t aspire to doing ‘everything > j2ee can do’ on any front; web application development or otherwise. > That’s > an un-win-able argument. The _very_ win-able argument is: pick the right > tool for the job. My suggestion was simply that Rails and BASIC are very > similar WRT their impact on the ability of folks who’ve not previously had > the capability to solve their own problems. It’s the 80-20 rule in > action. Someone once said something like, “The more experience you have with other languages first, the more awesome you will find Smalltalk.” That’s generally the impression people have here about Smalltalk and Perl’s love child. Permitting a simple few lines to get a lot done is not a crutch, it is in fact the heart of the matter. The simpler your program starts, the simpler it can say over time. – Phlip [Redirecting...](http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!!!