Finally a topic I like :)


> rails forces good practices like MVC
I believe this is debatable. What we should not forget
is that, while this uniform maintenance is a good
thing in general, rails also forces you into its world of
thinking.


> The truth is, the language used is only one small part of many 
> things they should be carefully considering. [...]
> The language really shouldn't matter all that much. 

I will take another approach and claim that the language
used is and will be the biggest most influencing factor.
It is exactly the reason why PHP became popular today -
it beat Perl cgi scripts. It was easier to learn than perl.
It had a good online docu. It concentrated on the web +
database aspects.
Every language has different pros and cons, and there may be
some cases where php really has more advantages than ruby.
But in general ruby as a language is simply better than php.
That includes the world wide web, but unfortunately there
are a little problems. Rails for example, forces you to
think in the rails-way, for the good or for the bad.
(By the way, it would be cool to be able to
embed ruby straight into a .php document... right now
I am porting my legacy .php scripts to ruby, it takes
quite long :P )

> also I'm open to any arguments(preferable documented, with showcases,
> and understandable by investor(who never had much expirience with
> computers except for e-mail and www)) that would help convince him that
> ruby is much better then php  :)

Easiest way to convince is code examples. Focus on simple tasks that
have some reallife usage value to him (the investor). But of course
the comparison must be fair, so dont make it too complex ;)

It would actually be nice to have a way to compare PURE php (+solutions)
with PURE ruby (+solutions for web-tasks:

  * Post data into a "web formular" in both languages
  * retrieve data from a mysql database
  * run automated "comparisons" and other data manipulations
    from a "web formular" (i.e. something for your investor
    that makes working with it easy)


Personally, I am a bit unhappy that PHP is compared to Rails so
often ... PHP should be compared to Ruby, and then if we can,
Ruby should improve on the area where PHP has a slight edge.

To me, speed was NEVER a reason, and to be honest, I think
some people really overrate the speed issue at first hand.
At least it should be untied from OTHER reasons, such as
the online docu part for example, where I think PHP still
has a lead over ruby in that aspect. ;-)
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.