Thread

I’m a big newbie to coding and I’ve been thinking of ways to “get in it” 😊

So far, I have downloaded CI, did the video tutorials, more or less understood the MVC model, played with blaze,inktype and settled with codeextinguisher as my pre-made cms, as atm I am way too noobish to build my own cms (I can build the blog thingy from the tutorials, but user auth and so on is just too long atm).

I’ve even built a web site with a backend and a news section, based on CI + codex, have a look (still on my dev server): http://dev.galenko.co.uk/ll

I must admit, I LOVE CI, and everything I know about it just gives me that warm’n'fuzzy feeling inside 😊

So what I wanted to ask is, as a newbie, what would be best, to continue learning the dev side via CI or should I turn to ruby, the reason I am even interested in it is because so many big companies (amazon, nasa, etc) use it, there must be a reason.

What advice would you give me? Why do you use CI instead of ruby?

Thanks 😉

First of all, be careful with this topic, it can get touchy for some people 😉
As for people using ruby, amazon might (not sure) but I haven’t heard of Nasa using ruby/ruby on rails, I do know they use Python.
First, to clarify, CI is a framework for the PHP programming language. Ruby is another programming language. What you’ve probably heard of is Ruby on Rails, which is a framework for Ruby.

I suggest you keep using PHP along with CI to become more comfortable with programming in general. Then, don’t just drop it to switch to Ruby/Rails but try to dabble in at least one while working in the other.
Rails is much bigger and more complex than CI. I suggest you learn how to do basic web application tasks like user authentication and a more advanced cms/blog, maybe some Ajax too, until you know what you’re doing. Then start dabbling in Rails.

One advantage of using PHP (and thus CI as well) is that it is extremely easy to get your site up and running publicly, all you need to do is upload your files. I have never deployed a Rails site from files on my computer, though there are some places that are pretty easy as well.

Basically, just become comfortable with programming in one field, read what you can about best practices, efficiency, good libraries and so on. Then, learning something like Ruby/Rails won’t be as much learning entirely new things, but only taking what you already know and applying it to new areas.

thank you, +1 for ci 😊

and yes, I meant ruby on rails 😊

daulex, i suggest you upgrade to the newest version of codeextinguisher ;P

I suggest u make it php 4.8.6 compatible 😛

The problem I see with Ruby is that it has some maddening black holes in certain areas.  I love the language but back in the day I had spent entire weekends doing nothing but trying to get Ruby and Rails working on my server.  These days it is much easier but similar problems remain.  There is not a lot of documentation for many things in the Ruby world and a good server setup is still not as straight forward as is a good PHP setup.  However, if you are a decent admin and you know Ruby then these things won’t slow you down.

When building something with the CodeIgniter framework I read the documentation and get things done.  When I build something with a Ruby framework, I read the code because sometimes the code is all the documentation that is available.  Part of my problem is that I am not using Rails though.  Rails is probably the best documented framework in the Ruby world but I feel it is too bloated.

I also feel that while PHP and Ruby are very easy to learn and get started with, Ruby is a little more difficult to grasp on the wider scale.  With PHP I feel there is generally one or just a few obvious ways to get something done.  This is good because it removes a bit of the guesswork.  I have also heard people describe Python this way though I have never touched that language.  In contrast, Perl has a saying “there is more than one way to do it” and it has crazy syntax to reflect that statement.  I feel Ruby is much the same way. 

I have not been working with Ruby for very long but overall I like it.  I picked up PHP much faster though and I still feel more comfortable with it.  You could also look into Perl, Python, or even Smalltalk.  Overall the easiest is probably PHP though.

php it is then 😊thanks guys 😉

why not go python 😉 here‘s an article from a Java/C++ programmer.

Basically you choose the language you feel most comfortable with what everybody else is saying to convince you.

I suggest u make it php 4.8.6 compatible 😛

Supporting a version that’s officially reached its end of life cycle? There are more efficient ways to spend your development effort, in my book.

I hate my hosting :(
update: sorted out the hosting and codex works now 😊

you should ask CI or Rails, or PHP or Ruby.

once you are skilled in rails, your producitvity is much higher as on CI - simply feel its unbeaten clever ActiveRecord!

Rails hosting is different, but easy and pure fun.

I love CIs simplicity - it gives you a superfast start, but I do not love to find myself patching and fixing a frameworks core libs when beeing in client deadlines trouble!

I’m confused.  4.8.6?  I thought the last PHP release was 4.4.8.

I’m confused.  4.8.6?  I thought the last PHP release was 4.4.8.

You are right, I have no idea why 4.8.6 comes up 😊