Why You Should Switch Your Career From PHP to Ruby on Rails ?

In popularity ratings, PHP still ranks as the top programming languages. It has many advantages, ranging from a lower entry threshold to a large and very well-developed community. That is why many beginners when it comes to choosing the career opportunity they opt for PHP, and you might be one of them.

But, if you are reading this blog, you are probably considering moving to another software engineering technology and Ruby’s on your list. Just like PHP, Ruby is an object-oriented, elevated-level programming language that allows developers to build complicated web applications.

Though, is the switch from PHP to Ruby worth it? Before diving into details, let’s check google trends

Indeed yes. Because of its distinct ethos, Ruby stands out from other computer programming languages. It is designed to help developers feel pleased with their jobs, unlike many other applications.

Key strengths of Ruby

As a programmer of PHP, you are well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of PHP, so there is no point in listing them here. So, let us move directly to Ruby.

Ruby on Rails developer have been able to praise for years their favorite language for a reason. To put it briefly, we are going to draw your attention to the aces Ruby has in its store and why it is better than PHP.

Let us get into it!

1. Happiness Increases Productivity

Ruby has an elegant syntax that is highly similar to natural human speech. It makes it much easier for developers and for non-technical people to understand code in Ruby as opposed to code in PHP.

Clear and concise code is not only easier to write, but it is also easier to monitor. The syntax dramatically accelerates the development and maintenance of Ruby-written software.

Another impressive feature of the programming language, Ruby, is that it has a pure object-oriented nature. All data structures are entities and can be manipulated accordingly. In PHP, the programming language is difficult to read, write, and understand.

2. Synergy

There are handfuls of PHP applications following the design pattern of Model–View–Controller (MVC).

Many structures tend to be an asset for a programming language, but let us look at the issue from a different perspective. All PHP MVC frameworks work the same way. They help to create conventional web and mobile apps. Therefore, the PHP community needs to support many structures that are very similar in terms of their tasks.

The case is different in Ruby− rather than dispersing efforts on helping several similar tools; the group concentrates on assisting frameworks to that fix various issues.

3. Ruby Gems

The best element of the Ruby community for many programmers is the gems. In other words, open-source libraries that allow developers to extend the functionality of any Ruby-written application quickly. RoR developers do not require to write code from scratch as they can simply select and use a related gem. Gems promote the work of programmers and significantly accelerate development.

PHP and other programming languages contain hundreds of different databases. And it is where Ruby programming language is of great use than PHP. Ruby is all about flexibility. Most PHP libraries, for instance, are only compatible with a particular system, which significantly limits their usability. In Ruby, gems are compliant with any structure, whether it is Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, or Hanami.

At an early stage of Ruby’s ecosystem growth, developers realized the need to make gems compatible. To make sure gems are consistent, the community formed RubyGems − a packaging supervisor for the Ruby programming language. It has included in the standard Ruby on Rails package.

RubyGems offers a standard format for Ruby-written open-source libraries management and distribution. It allows developers to download gems with applicable repositories. The tool combines with the Ruby runtime installer and downloads the required gems seamlessly. RubyGems handles dependencies and installs a gem version that is compatible with a particular Ruby program.

4. Mature Community

You can be an exceptionally talented programmer, but relying on a professional and competent team is much easier than handling things on your own. PHP is one of the world’s most popular programming languages, so there is no wonder there was a large PHP programmer community. Yet the comparatively low barrier to entry of PHP entails there are amateurs in the community. Since there are many immature coders, the size may not match the quality level.

In Ruby, the story is different. The group is smaller, but mostly includes practitioners who learn up and down of Ruby. Ruby is generally the developer’s second choice of programming language after PHP. It is no brainer why the culture at Ruby is very active and productive. According to the State of the October 2017 fact sheet by GitHub, Ruby surpasses PHP in contexts of pull demands annually (870,000 versus 559,000, respectively).

Another positive part of a higher level of experience throughout the Ruby family is salaries. Professionalism should be paid fairly, and the ordinary Ruby developer is paid more than what the average PHP developer is paid.

5. Powerful metaprogramming capabilities

Metaprogramming is a computer-generating writing technique. In other terms, metaprogramming enables developers to write code that can read, produce, evaluate, and convert other code during debugging by it.

This programming methodology helps developers write valid, usable, and scalable code according to the development concept of DRY (do not repeat yourself). Metaprogramming also greatly accelerates progress, enabling Ruby developers to spend mere minutes performing tasks that usually take hours when implemented in other programming languages.

Epilogue

Now that you acknowledge what is so exceptional about Ruby. But yes, the programming language, Ruby is created not just to make developers happy but also provide comfort in all the ways possible. Switching from PHP to Ruby as a career can be a great alternative if you want to be efficient and engage in exciting and rewarding ventures. A simple programming language, Ruby is a synonym to success.