Ask HN: What to do if I know Python but love the idea of Rails?

2 points by methochris 8 years ago | 2 comments

Let me start by saying I am familiar with all of the options and am not looking for any recommendations to "just use django". I know all about django and, imo, it still falls really short of what rails provides. A solid system (rack::attack) for throttling, a built in jobs and storage system that doesn't rely on a 3rd party library, ERB > django template language, Capybara is amazing, built in asset pipeline, etc, etc.

Basically I love everything about the idea of rails and what it provides. I only care about web applications and it is basically as close as anyone can get to having so many bases covered all under one roof and humongous community support to boot.

My problem is: I know python. I think python. I cannot for the life of me grock ruby or rails and I just can't seem to stick with trying to understand it when I could just be trying to get stuff done with what I already know. But I'm not happy with the solutions on the what-i-know side of the fence so I'm conflicted to the point of stagnation here.

I think I just needed to vent a little but I'm really hoping someone out there has had a similar experience and could offer some insight.

Thanks for reading.

paktek123 8 years ago |

Rails comes with many libraries, you might use some or you might not, is this just to play around or for an actual project?

I'd say if you know Django and python it shouldnt be hard at all to pick up ruby and Rails. I think learning rails would a great learning exercise, something you can already apply your Django knowledge

methochris 8 years ago | |

actual project.

i think it boils down to how explicit python is. it is so immediately clear to me what is going on and where things are coming from and what they are doing that when i look at ruby/rails code it looks like a big empty void that is producing something fantastic and all i can thing is "...wtf?". i really really want to know how to speak in magic but i'm not sure my brain is equipped to process it.