Technology Choices-Rails/PHP/MVC???

Well, we’ve identified our first application, which will be a web application which interfaces with mobile clients on the Android and iPhone platform.  My partner and I have a background in Java and .NET (Java’s evil twin) web development.  We’ve also dabbled in PHP, and I’ve done some work with PHP based MVC frameworks such as CodeIgniter and Cake.

I enjoy watching the religious battles that rage over selecting technologies for web development, but we are definitely not religious where technology choices are concerned.  It’s all about time to market, scalability and how much fun it is to develop these applications.

Ok, long story short…after looking at the usual suspects, we chose Ruby on Rails for our web component and Android/iPhone for our mobile stuff.  Why?  Read on…

PHP/MVC Frameworks

PHP is well established and nobody can argue the scalability of PHP and the various MVC frameworks available for it.  Why didn’t we pick it?  I admit this was our second choice, but curiosity and a craving for learning something new with a lot of buzz around it was too compelling…

.NET

Two problems…money and hosting.  Oh wait…three problems….NET has been only a recent adopter of MVC frameworks and we do not yet have confidence in their viability.  My partner and I have developed robust and scalable applications in .NET, having made the decision to go that route over J2EE in our last application, but in the fertile landscape of web development .NET, with it’s high price tag and limited hosting options was not compelling enough.

Python/Django

It should be clear by now that we’re MVC junkies here, and Python with the Django framework are not to be trifled with.  However, a quick look for hosting providers that supported Python/Django with more than lip service was difficult to find.  We’re routing for you Django!  Keep up the good work and maybe our next application will be built on your stuff.

Ok, so why Ruby on Rails?  Well, to be honest it’s what all the cool kids are using.  We need to get a simple and focused application up and running fast.  Although we’re software engineers and computer scientists…getting a commercial application up and running in record time is what inspires us, not the inherent beauty of the solution.  Besides, Ruby and Rails aren’t so bad..

So, as for Android and iPhone…it’s all about Market share.  Android is a natural migration for us having come from the Java world.  As for the iPhone, we’re hoping Objective C isn’t too big of a leap.  We are a bit worried that Apple’s somehwat draconian screening practices may force us to jump from this platform, but at the moment we’re committed to the iPhone.

All of you zealots out there who are advocates for technologies we did not choose…please tell us the error in our ways.  As I said, there are many ways to skin a cat…maybe our way isn’t the right one.

One thing I’ll promise you is that if our selection of Rails/Android/iPhone does not pan out, we’ll choose differently next time!