On Jun 5, 2006, at 17:50, James Britt wrote:

> Tom Marsh wrote:
>> I'm still new to the language myself, but I'm comming at it as an  
>> enterprise
>> web developer (Java/.Net).
>> The killer app for Ruby, for me at least, is Rails. Rails has got  
>> so much
>> right with regards web development it makes you question how Sun  
>> got it
>> quite so wrong... or at least not as good.
>
> Sun had a different opinion on how to do Web development.

https://glassfish.dev.java.net/

https://phobos.dev.java.net/

There's always something new around the corner, and it always builds  
on past experience.  Don't fool yourself into thinking that there are  
constant revolutionary changes and "killer apps" for any language.   
Java was meant to be its own "killer app" - whither now the Virtual  
Machine, making all platforms equal?  They're running on *servers*,  
which is almost the exact opposite of the original view of Java.

As for "what language should I use?" I think there are few more  
informative essays that one could read than this one by Paul Graham;   
it's Lisp-centric in its particulars, but many of the points made can  
apply to Ruby as well (even some of the Lispier ones, at a stretch):

"Revenge of the Nerds"
http://www.paulgraham.com/icad.html


Other good ones are:

"Being Popular" - very interesting in light of Ruby's recent surge in  
popularity.
http://www.paulgraham.com/popular.html

"LFM and LFSP" - Expands to "Languages For the Masses and Languages  
For Smart People", some speculation on what makes languages "fun."
http://www.paulgraham.com/vanlfsp.html


matthew smillie.