Hi all Php experienced coders, I myself have been doing code in php/CakePhP since last 5 years. I have switched to freelancing a while ago and had plans to continue in php only. One of my recent client has asked me to shift to Ruby on Rails. I was quick in learning in other things so he suggested me and also helping me too in learning RoR. He have given various reasons that why RoR is better from php from future point of view. But my biggest concern is that if i will shift to RoR my php/CakePhp experience will lessen and after one or two years of RoR experience, i will still not be that expert. If i will keep coding in php after one or two years i will have 6 to 7 years of v good one solid experience. What you all php guros will suggest, that what step should i take? Should i learn ror or should i continue with php(by finding other clients) to increase my php experience further? Will be grateful to every suggestion. Regards
Experienced PHP code is better than Inexperienced Ruby code. You can reverse that as well. You will read 1,000 reasons to use *insert language* and 1,000 reasons not to use *insert language*. Use what you know and what works best. The client usually NEVER knows what is best...and if they claim to it's because someone has told them. It's up to YOU to educate your client...not have them educate you. Otherwise, wtf are you doing and why is he wasting his money? By taking on a new language you are simply going to grow smarter as a developer. You aren't going to forget about PHP. In fact, In 1996 I learned Perl. It wasn't until 2005 I switched to PHP for Web Development. To this day I will still use Perl and I haven't forgotten anything. Sometimes I will have to take 30 seconds to Google a function to be reminded. I have never once used a PHP function in Perl and vise verse.
Thanks for replying. Well the client is not a layman, he himself has v vast experience in php and ror also. so basically i cant argue with him over this but i just mentioned my concern of php experience, to which he replied with google graph trends toward php, ruby and python also. he is not wasting money but investing money in me to work for him on his clients projects in RoR. Your second para was encouraging that i shouldn't feel worried about my previous experience and will be able to cope with php projects even after one or two years. Still pondering what should i do. might be i will use wait and see policy for a month more and will finally decide. thats why wanted to have discussion with gurus of web development field here first.
It's irrelevant what other sites use if every site is different. So the "trend" is absolutely meaningless. If 10 million sites use PHP and 10.2 million sites use Ruby that should NOT be a deciding factor. It's irrelevant. By forcing you to learn an entirely new language that is equal in functions and popularity over a language you have mastered for years it's absolutely a waste of time unless 1) you are taking over a project already written in another language or 2) there is an absolute must need for a specific language. He may not be all that skillful as you believe. If your his investment, you are not worth the time and risk to learn inexperienced code if a client needs something secure and pronto. Expanding your skill set doesn't hinder you. Stop being unrealistic. If it takes you a month to decide whether you want to learn a new language for a job you should tell your boss that his bucks would be better spent elsewhere. I wouldn't tolerate such nonsense.
well. its not experiment from my end only. he is also experimenting that he can save his time and earn more by keeping me with him as low cost employee. as far as standards are concerned he never compromises on it and is coding since 16 years, so i feel kind of lucky to be working with him. my only concern was that learning new language will reduce my previous experience but i feel its not worth worrying about and i should continue learning and working in RoR with him as far as possible.
This makes no sense. He cannot save more time by having you learn a new language when a secure application is expected by a client in a reasonable time frame. If you feel blessed and lucky to be working with him...then do whatever he wants you to do despite the out come. And once again...obviously the quality of your previous experience won't be reduced by expanding your skillset.
As much as I agree with NetStar, I have to say that, for now, I'll be sticking with PHP. I'm comfortable with it, can do things without thinking about the code and know so many library routines that even if the greatest language ever written came along, I'd be spending too much time trying to figure out something I could do without thinking in PHP, for too long, to make it worth switching. It's not that I'm opposed to being multi-lingual - I probably know more than 20 programming languages (I've been doing this for almost 40 years), but I write web apps now, and PHP/SQL is almost all I need server-side to do anything I know how to do.
That is the reason that i am feeling puzzled to switch to ror. I dont want to be jack of all but master of none. I too often write whole php code of one full page and after that i refresh the web page. but in ror i have to write few lines of code and then refresh page and see if there is no error and again back to coding...time consuming for me in the start. but might be after couple of months i will be able to write code without switching between coding and browser windows too often.
If you're doing this to earn a living, my approach is to do what makes me most efficient. Would I be as good in a few months with RoR as I am now with PHP? No. Would you be? You have to decide. BTW, if you use your browser to check your code, not a browser window in an IDE, you don't switch between anything. Write code in one monitor, save it (to the server), refresh the browser. Moving the mouse back and forth takes one second or less. (If you're not running FirePHP or some other debugger to develop your code, you're not being as efficient as you could be.) Hobbyists don't have these problems. Whether it takes 2 hours or 3 weeks to get the code working doesn't make that much difference.