Ruby is better than PHP

Posted by Momo Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:18:00 GMT

Lots of web developers use PHP. It’s an open source programming language and one of the most popular for making web sites. We don’t use it, though. We use Ruby.

This is not an arbitrary choice, like preferring purple to green. We use Ruby because it’s better. That’s what we tell our clients when they ask why we use Ruby. The next question is usually, “What makes it better?”

It’s pretty hard to answer that question directly, because the reasons are all highly technical. Instead, we say something such as, “Ruby is like well-crafted writing.” Or, “It’s just better designed.” Both of them are true. But how do you know we’re right, and not just expressing our opinion? Mightn’t other people think that PHP is a better language than Ruby?

Actually, probably not. What you’ll find is that people who’ve learned Ruby and also PHP nearly all think Ruby is better. People who know PHP but not Ruby, or PHP and a little Ruby, might tell you that the two languages are equivalent.

When talking about any two programming languages used for the same purpose – call them X and Y – you’ll find one of two things. 1: everyone will agree that X and Y are equivalent; or, 2: some people will say X is better than Y, and some people will say X and Y are equivalent.

What you almost never find is some people saying “X is better than Y”, and some saying “Y is better than X”. Why not? The reason is that X really is better than Y – it’s a fact – but you have to know how to program in X pretty well before you realise it.

The people who say X and Y are equivalent are Y programmers who can’t understand the more advanced features of X. To them, X just looks like another version of Y, with a bunch of other random stuff tacked on. They don’t say “Y is better than X”, because they can at least see that X can do everything Y can do. What they can’t see is what X can do that their language can’t.

So if you find experienced Ruby programmers saying “Ruby is better than PHP”, and PHP programmers saying “Ruby and PHP are equivalent”, believe the Ruby guys.