o(ther)l/log

Starting with a fully configured application base, bootstrapping the app with scaffolding, have really iterative development with a dynamic language and no class-reload issues. For all these aspects, the J2EE tools are clearly in the dust, and this is why Rails is the clear winner in the small project / new projects areas. I'm not talking other kinds as I think we don't have enough feedback from large or very large Rails applications, and of course with maintenance of Rails app.

On the other hand, what is missing on the Rails side is the tools, the platform and the deployment. I want the tools: I want a great Ruby IDE, with a Rails personality. I'd love a much larger set of Ruby libraries: not necessarly core libraries, but a huge ecosystem of external tools and classes, like what we have in Java (and, on a lesser scale, on Python). And what I'd really love right now is something to facilitate deployment of my rails app. I want to have my webbrick tested app and push a single button or run a single script to have it deployed on my production server on apache or lighthttpd. I'd love to see something likethis, as easy to setup as the database.yml.

Even if a big part of Rails success comes from very smart 'marketing', it's really unusual and refreshing to have this attention to details (development process, initial phases of the application life, etc) in an open-source project. It's also interesting that the debate is mainly raging between the rails and java camp, and not much with PHP and Python developers.