Hi Stephen,

I've seen that aGorilla has pointed you to my blog
(http://dema.ruby.com.br) on this subject.

As I am still working on both platforms, let me give you a summed up
comparison.

I think both ASP.NET and Ruby on Rails approach different ways for
building web apps, but both manage to do it in a very high quality
manner.

In the end, it's much more about developer's taste and less about
technical issues.

For instance, if you're more towards statically-typed languages and are
used to have a compiler and a top-notch IDE (VS.NET) to help you out,
then by all means go with ASP.NET.

On the other hand, if you prefer simpler tools (more text-based),
dynamic languages, and running your app in a interpreted, more agile
environment, RoR might be a good fit.

On the technical side, ASP.NET as we all know has some portability
issues, so, inspite of Mono, your best bet on a production environment
would be on a Windows web server and a SQL Server database. Remeber the
high costs of that.

RoR is based on a completely free, open-source stack (Ruby, Apache,
Lighttpd, MySQL, Postgre, etc) and runs well on pretty much any OS
platform out there, be it Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, MacOS, Solaris, etc.

If your going with RoR, remember to allocate some quality time for
studying the language and the framework and getting used to new tools
and environments and learning how things are done in a open-source
community. It takes some time to get up to full speed, but at the same
time, can be a revealing and rewarding experience.

Of course, these days, I'd recommend RoR, but remember that what best
fits me, and it might be different for you. Anyway, you will be in good
hands if you go with ASP.NET as well.

best regards,
Demetrius
http://dema.ruby.com.br/


Stephen Kellett wrote:
> HI Folks,
>
> Anyone here done both ASP.NET and Rails? Care to compare and contrast?
> I'm not interested in MS bashing, just the pros and cons of both
> environments.
>
> The reason I ask is that I've just read on joelonsoftware that he thinks
> ASP.NET is excellent and is the best solution for server based work
> presented on a website. I wonder if anyone thinks thats a valid
> statement or not and can provide arguments for/against that point of
> view.
>
> If ASP.NET does offer superior things to Rails, what can be done to
> Rails and/or Ruby to change things?
>
> Stephen
> --
> Stephen Kellett
> Object Media Limited    http://www.objmedia.demon.co.uk/software.html
> Computer Consultancy, Software Development
> Windows C++, Java, Assembler, Performance Analysis, Troubleshooting