# What are the benefits of RoR?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-are-the-benefits-of-ror/52972>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 22, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-are-the-benefits-of-ror/52972 "2006-01-22T01:22:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-are-the-benefits-of-ror/52972/1 "2006-01-22T01:22:52Z")

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We’ve all seen the productivity benefits of RoR. It would be worthwhile  
to figure out where they come from.

For me, I’d say the following:

1. The number one benefit isn’t from Rails per se, but from Ruby, or any  
other dynamic OO language (like Python). They avoid the weaknesses of  
loosely typed, procedural languages like Perl & PHP, but have the  
swiftness that Java/C++/C# lack.

2. Next on my list is the benefits of a configurationless O/R mapper -  
ActiveRecord. I can hack a of this together in PHP, or configure it up  
with Hibernate, but with AR, I’m good to go, out of the box, for the  
basics - and the advanced requires just a few lines.

3. I also enjoy the fact that ActionPack does the bookkeeping necessary  
to turn URLs into Controller+Action+Template, and (using url\_for), vice  
versa. Also that it prepops forms, and creates objects from form data.

4. Last, I find the rails command line and environment to be very  
convienent. I’m referring to the Rails::Generator and  
Rails::Initializer her. Unit test stubs, testing environments,  
consoles, and logging. I could do all this myself, but having rails to  
do it takes it off my mind.

To give it numbers, I’d say:  
#1 35%  
#2 30%  
#3 25%  
#4 10%  
although, on big projects, things at the top of the list contribute  
more, and, for little projects, things on the bottom.

What do you say?

(PS A good follow up to this might be: “What can we learn from this to  
other environments.” Stay tuned…)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-are-the-benefits-of-ror/52972/2 "2006-01-22T16:31:34Z")

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I’d like to hear other people’s top list on how RoR improves their  
productivity.

It’s important that we understand this, not only so that we can promote  
RoR (and increase jobs & demand!), but also so that we can learn from it  
and further it.

List R. wrote:

> We’ve all seen the productivity benefits of RoR. It would be worthwhile  
> to figure out where they come from.
> 
> For me, I’d say the following:
> 
> 1. The number one benefit isn’t from Rails per se, but from Ruby, or any  
> other dynamic OO language (like Python). They avoid the weaknesses of  
> loosely typed, procedural languages like Perl & PHP, but have the  
> swiftness that Java/C++/C# lack.
> 
> 2. Next on my list is the benefits of a configurationless O/R mapper -  
> ActiveRecord. I can hack a of this together in PHP, or configure it up  
> with Hibernate, but with AR, I’m good to go, out of the box, for the  
> basics - and the advanced requires just a few lines.
> 
> 3. I also enjoy the fact that ActionPack does the bookkeeping necessary  
> to turn URLs into Controller+Action+Template, and (using url\_for), vice  
> versa. Also that it prepops forms, and creates objects from form data.
> 
> 4. Last, I find the rails command line and environment to be very  
> convienent. I’m referring to the Rails::Generator and  
> Rails::Initializer her. Unit test stubs, testing environments,  
> consoles, and logging. I could do all this myself, but having rails to  
> do it takes it off my mind.
> 
> To give it numbers, I’d say:  
> #1 35%  
> #2 30%  
> #3 25%  
> #4 10%  
> although, on big projects, things at the top of the list contribute  
> more, and, for little projects, things on the bottom.
> 
> What do you say?
> 
> (PS A good follow up to this might be: “What can we learn from this to  
> other environments.” Stay tuned…)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-are-the-benefits-of-ror/52972/3 "2006-01-22T18:59:40Z")

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Whats to understand?

Think Miller Lite(RoR) vs. Budwieser(Java, PHP, ASP)

You want less or more?

Less time, less code, less duplication of effort

I just stepped into Rails a few days ago, but I can already see that it  
will  
make its way into the enterprise. Java and C# developers will enjoy the  
pure  
OO of Ruby, PHP developers will enjoy typing less code.

I think the biggest stepping stone right now is improving the SAPI  
interfaces for webservers. FastCGI and mod\_ruby are a little rough  
around  
the edges for large-scale commercial sites.

Getting better looking websites for both Ruby and Rails would help as  
well  
from the marketing standpoint.

I also think that DHH should continue to keep full commit rights tightly  
controlled to maintain a controlled direction for the Rails framework.

Bob S.