Rails, Java, Frameworks, Fight!

Boy, has this been a hot week when it comes to framework fighting. If you keep an eye out at the development blog for Ruby on Rails, you’ve probably seen it all happening. Basically, it goes like this: David launched Ta-da Lists not long ago as proof that RoR allowed a developer to deploy an application of that kind writing only a few lines of code. It worked.

Now yesterday, the fun started. Geert Bevin developedBlaBla List, using his own Java framework (RIFE) and Laszlo. Not bad at all. A few minor details:

* The interface for BlaBla List is Flash-Based (courtesy of Laszlo)
* The source for BlaBla List is open
* It implements a couple of interesting features

Now, I’m not taking sides here, and thats not the point of this entry. Both implementations of the same application work fine, its a matter of approach. I love David’s use of Ajax (Javascript, XML, XmlHttpRequest) to simplify the process of maintaing your list, and i love Geerts’s way of putting things in a nice popup window that someone can just keep open whenever they need.

So, is the point here the framework? Is it which one is the most powerful? Is it about the e-penis size of each author? To my own eyes, both their efforts are valuable for one thing alone: they’re giving better tools to people who want to develop for an interactive web. The ideas they’re exploring are some of the things that will motivate and inspire other programmers in their interaction work on the web, so is it really worth it to bash away against something thats only pushing the boundaries too? Competition’s healthy here, people.

So what is there to gain from the web-framework bashing session of yesterday? A whole bunch of links to technologies you should be reading about and using on your web applications:

* Ruby on Rails – A framework for RAD with Ruby
* RIFE – Same thing, with Java
* Trails – A domain driven development framework for Java
* Laszlo – Platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications on the World Wide Web

Choice is key.