# Why are we so productive with Rails? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 5, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-are-we-so-productive-with-rails/91204 "2007-04-05T17:19:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-are-we-so-productive-with-rails/91204/1 "2007-04-05T17:19:24Z")
We’ve been using Rails here at 82ASK for over a year, and we love it. We’re much more productive in Rails than we were before we switched. I’ve been thinking recently about why, exactly, we’re so productive in Rails. Especially given that Fred Brooks’ “No Silver Bullet” paper suggests that there are no more big wins to be had. Rails certainly feels like a big win to us! So anyway, I’ve reached some conclusions about where Rails’ productivity boost comes from and have blogged about it: [http://about.82ask.com/2007/04/05/ruby-on-rails/](http://about.82ask.com/2007/04/05/ruby-on-rails/) I would be very interested in your feedback! Paul. ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-are-we-so-productive-with-rails/91204/2 "2007-04-05T17:35:07Z")
Paul B. wrote: > [http://about.82ask.com/2007/04/05/ruby-on-rails/](http://about.82ask.com/2007/04/05/ruby-on-rails/) “On the back of this experience (and after a lot of internal debate!) we decided to rewrite one of our existing PHP systems in Ruby on Rails in June 2006. Including load testing, end-user trials etc, it took three developers six weeks to entirely duplicate a 22,000 line PHP system with approximately 5 man-years of work invested in it. The final Rails system consisted of 6,000 lines of code.” Luv them rewrites. Could you have rewritten in PhP and achieved fewer lines? Of course! But an order of magnitude fewer? That’s the definition of a Silver Bullet - an order of magnitude in one rewrite… DRY, soft typing, wall-to-wall unit tests, browser-safe JavaScript, and instant Domain Specific Languages for everything - what more do we need? – Phlip [http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!! ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-are-we-so-productive-with-rails/91204/3 "2007-04-05T17:50:58Z")
Paul B. wrote: > I would be very interested in your feedback! > > Paul. Fantastic! Thank you very much for taking the time to write that. I also really appreciate the links to all referenced material. Higgly recommended thanks again ilan ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-are-we-so-productive-with-rails/91204/4 "2007-04-06T17:31:53Z")
Ilan B. wrote: > Fantastic! Thank you very much for taking the time to write that. I > also really appreciate the links to all referenced material. > > Higgly recommended Many thanks for the kind words, Ilan - I appreciate the feedback! Paul. ---
**Author:** ![paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@paulbutcher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paulbutcher)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-are-we-so-productive-with-rails/91204/5 "2007-04-08T13:38:15Z")
I just read this post with interest and then moved on and added a thankyou to a later post containing a snippet of code. My comment there however led me to wondering about how things have developed. I learned the first elements of coding using a set of registers on a page stuck to cardboard with sliding strips of 1’s and 0’s. Then our college had TTY access to the Open University mainframe (amazing, but you had to wait till the next day to get your results), and then came the microprocessor along with the PET and NASCOM et al. How things have developed!! Anyway, as you can guess from the above, I am no youngster, and am realising that my memory does not serve me like it used to. So often I know what I want to do, but it can take quite a time to put that into the perspective of appropriate code structure (eg. I know I saw a plugin, a Class, a method that would solve this, but where was it, etc etc.) The extent of the programming field now necessary to work in - for example - Rails is enormous. It encompasses HTML, CSS, Ruby and Rails itself, just for starters. Then some of the principles behind client server/browser interaction etc, and throw in perhaps XML, XSLT, ftp and goodness knows what else you may need to incorporate. And we know that with the rate things are moving, documentation is often sparse and fragmented. I remember the day we had our first computer in our office, a very expensive HP9845 workstation, running primarily HP Basic. We had one computer and 5 complete sets of the manuals (very well written by HP of course). The manuals were taken home in the evenings and read from cover to cover, at the end of which one could retain a fairly comprehensive awareness of the entire set of instructions available. How different things are now. True, there is the Agile Rails book, which can be read cover to cover. So what is my point. You are referring to the Silver Bullet, and I believe that is true. I am regularly amazed how using Ruby and Rails, you look something up, implement it and it “just works”. And this is the key, with Rails productivity is increased, but there can be a cost in lack of familiarity in getting to the solution. For me, this highlights the invaluable importance of Google in the whole process. (I guess I should say the internet and search engines in general). Without these, the majority of current development in technology could remain, for most, left on the shelf, since one could neither afford or manage to read enough books to cover the extent necessary. Let’s hope the likes of Google continue to pioneer new and better ways of pulling the information we need from the ever growing sea of information. tonypm (with apologies for the reminiscing) The problem from my perspective however is not in finding the information itself, but in knowing how to phrase the question to describe the information I am trying to obtain, and of course this is where the forums really come into their own.