RoR is a full stack framework
* ORM is baked in
* Testing (unit, functional, integration) is baked in
* Debugging is baked in
* MVC is baked in
* Routing is baked in
* Web services are baked in
* Code auto generation is baked in
* Database migrations (forward and backwards) are baked in
I am most likely missing a lot there.
The other big thing about RoR is that it is making in roads for enterprise level deployments. This is an area that is pretty tied up in .NET and Java development. Having another contender in there that is a full stack framework is pretty nice.
The other benefits about RoR is that it is written in Ruby. Ruby is an excellent language. You might find it very similar to python. It is completely object oriented and has syntax that allow you to do incredibly complex things, as well as to make normal things very intuitive.
It is not all yellow brick roads. There are problems, and it is a platform that is evolving incredibly fast without a lot of backwards computability. Just because something worked in a previous release does not mean it will work the same way in a future release.
It is a framework of conventions, and if you are not following them things can be difficult. It is not a language of configurations which if you are a Java developer you will know all too well.
I still find PHP to be the language that I will use for developing a small brochure-ware site. I know PHP too well, and I can throw my templates together in minutes, and if I do not need a database driven back end I will most likely not gain a whole lot of benefit from an MVC structure.
If I am going to be developing something larger I am going to go with RoR. It just feels smarter when I am doing it.
Dan
Code Town | Zombie Head | How Much TP?