On the Rails Again

Danny's Blog has some good perspectives from a Java guy who just went to JavaPolis, but who is also On the Rails Again. He did pick up on a general meme of EoD:

> A lot of presentations I saw, about Java EE 5 (GlassFish) but also for instance about Spring, stressed that everyone now focusses on EoD(Ease of Development) and ‘code by exception’, meaning: only having to code the exceptions to the default behaviour.

Having just come back from The Spring Experience myself, and having written Ruby on Rails applications for the two weeks prior, I can attest to what Danny experienced. Programming in Rails certainly opens up your eyes to what else is possible in the web programming world. Not all of it is good, mind you. You immediately miss the power of your Java IDE, for one thing.

I recommend that every Java web developer go code a quick application in Rails, even if they will never use Rails again. It's so easy to get caught up in a language's constraints, both physical and mental. By programming an application in something not Rails, you take a breath of fresh air. Rails is cutting edge because of what it doesn't try to do. I'm certain that a Java developer can learn a thing or two from what Rails attempts.

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