Rails, not just for your Grand Pappy’s train set anymore Were talking about a great tool for developing Web 2.0 applications and interactive websites. Ruby on Rails, sometimes affectionately referred to as RoR, is a relatively new Web development framework that has become popular among programmers as it brings simplicity to programming. This Framework is made available as an open source project at http://www.rubyonrails.org/ and can be used on any of CWIhosting.com’s Linux hosting packages. Ruby has been around since the early 90’s, and was invented in Japan. However, a young Copenhagen native, David Hansson released the rails version in 2004 creating the buzz on the web we see today. One man’s quest to build a practical and productive Web Development Framework is the perfect demonstration of our company motto at CWI; Where small business grows up.(TM) It shows how just one person can shake up an entire establishment, and initiate progressive change.  This is evident in the Software and Dev world as The Burton Group, a research company, recommends that "corporate customers consider Ruby on Rails for new web development projects”.

Although Ruby on Rails is not as widespread in its use as other Web tools like PHP, Java and many of Microsoft's tools, it has made a real impact in less than 2 years.  RoR has caught the attention of the several trend setting and influential programmers leading the movement towards RoR.  In a manner similar to Java a decade ago, Ruby on Rails is getting developers reenergized with the prospects of vastly increasing their productivity. The vision of Ruby on Rails according to its founder, is to combine the speed and ease-of-use of the PHP scripting language with the "clean," structured approach of Java. That combination makes code quick to write and easy to maintain over time, Hansson has said.

According to many developers, the interest and growth of Ruby on Rails is partly fueled by an aim to replace Java or Microsoft's C+ language with these Scripting, or "dynamic," languages which tend to be simpler to learn. We believe that RoR, using the AJAX set of development techniques, brings a great toolset to web development. This allows greater involvement with Web 2.0 application phenomena, thus offering more applications online that are no longer tied to a specific operating system and available to anyone with an internet connection.