# What´s ruby on rails for?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whata-s-ruby-on-rails-for/78924>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 10, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whata-s-ruby-on-rails-for/78924 "2006-12-10T18:05:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![marcello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@marcello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marcello)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whata-s-ruby-on-rails-for/78924/1 "2006-12-10T18:05:29Z")

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Hi,

I´m a Delphi programmer,tht was once a clipper programmer,that was  
once a Cobol programmer.

So,It is time to change again.

By now I would prefer to become a farmer instead of using .NET,Java  
seems to be a five heads monster.

I´ve heard that Ruby on Rails is much easier to learn than Java.

But what are the cons?

Is it good for ERP development,I´ve heard something about it does not  
supportin conpound primary keys and two phase commits(Altough I´ve  
never done that before).

Is it too buggy?How many users there are around the world?

I´ve never seen a Ruby Job in Brazil,But I´m almost 40 years old  
now,It is time to take the risk and learn something that will last more  
10 or 15 years(Is it Ruby?)

What books do you recomend for a beginner?

Marcello

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marcello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@marcello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marcello)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whata-s-ruby-on-rails-for/78924/2 "2006-12-10T18:45:33Z")

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Marcello wrote:

> Is it good for ERP development,I´ve heard something about it does not  
> supportin conpound primary keys and two phase commits(Altough I´ve  
> never done that before).

Rails uses ActiveRecord for its ORM by default, which doesn’t like to  
play too well with legacy schemas, natural primary keys, and prefers to  
ignore any database features that weren’t present in MySQL 3.x. You  
probably don’t need 2PC unless running on a write-mostly DB cluster, and  
there’s Rails plugins or alternate ORM backends that can iron out the  
other quirks available. (Dr. Nic’s Magic Models comes to mind, or his  
plugin for composite PKs.) But the Rails list is a better place to ask.

> Is it too buggy?How many users there are around the world?

Odles, it’s the Shiny New Kid On The Block. (For metaphorical values of  
“new”.) And I believe it’s Reasonably Stable ™.

David V.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marcello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@marcello](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/marcello)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/whata-s-ruby-on-rails-for/78924/3 "2006-12-11T21:07:40Z")

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Hi - for the Portuguese speakers there is  
[http://www.balanceonrails.com.br/](http://www.balanceonrails.com.br/)  
and a book that Fabio Akita wrote - maybe this would be of some help.

Cheers.