Scalability of Ruby on Rails

I was looking through the slides from jcon today.  I really wish I could have gone; it looked like it was awesome.

I noticed that Yehuda Katz was a speaker.  He's also a member of the Ruby on Rails core team, and I have been hearing rumors that Ruby on Rails doesn't scale well.

That rumor is a thorn in my side because I am interested in learning Ruby on Rails, but I want to be able to use it on a potentially enterprise level...

I sent Yehuda Katz an email, complimenting his slides and asking about the scalability of Rails and telling him that I had heard it didn't.

He replied with the following, and I thought it would be a good idea to share, just so anyone else who is interested could add their input.

"People who say this don't really understand what scaling is. Scaling is not about the performance of the VM, it's about fundamental architecture. Rails uses the REST architecture, the same architecture used by the Internet itself. It provides strong mechanisms for both server-side and client-side caching. It's the only framework I know of to implement all of the server-side recommendations in YSlow. Rails is, in fact, a high-performance framework. If someone says Rails can't scale, ask them what exactly they mean."


So, let me ask you...


If you say Ruby on Rails can't scale, what DO you mean?

Books I've read and approve Part 1

Over the past few months, I have been completely enveloped in a new (to me) set of JavaScript conventions/ideas, and it's changed the way I program completely.

I went from messy global variables left and right, unorganized functions, repeating myself a TON, to neater, cleaner, easier-to-read code that relies on JavaScript libraries/namespace-like functionality.

Two books that I have read helped me make this leap, and make it a TON easier, too.

In no particular order:

Pro JavaScrip Techniques by John Resig
        This book was awesome.  It had a ton of information, and it taught me a lot.  I like the way Resig writes.   He doesn't really do a bunch of convoluted examples; he's pretty straight forward.  X can be accomplished Y way, but it's more efficient to do it like Z and here's why.  There were some typos here and there, but all-in-all, the book is sound.  It also comes complete with a boatload of awesome Appendixes, one completely dedicated to Events!  Hell yes! I would definitely recommend this to anyone, in fact, if you want to borrow it from me, hit me up!

JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
        For those of you who don't know Crockford, you need to watch some of his videos; the man is hilarious.  I find him kind of cynical, but I love it.  He's not afraid to tell it like it is, whether or not you like it.  This book was pretty small, but don't let it's size fool you -- it had a lot of really awesome information.  He may seem rough around the edges, but deep down, Crockford is a man after my own heart.  He recognizes the elegance and power of JavaScript and really brings its beauty to light.

I am all about reading awesome books about programming, so if you have any, feel free to post them here.  I am always looking for a good read.

I think it's safe to say, JavaScript has pretty much taken over.

I recently bought Agile Web Development with Rails by Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson, and I've just started it.

I am extremely interested in how programmer-friendly RoR is.

I would love to hear some opinions from RoR veterans.

I know there are rumors about how it doesn't scale well, so I'd love to hear solid conversation on that aspect as well!

Well, until next time -- have a good one!