[rubyn00bie]

JavaScript is a must know if you want to do web work. It's as necessary as HTML. It's the only language browsers actually natively run.

Ruby on Rails is sort of the basis for most any other modern MVC web framework. That is to say it inspired nearly every other web MVC framework, in most other languages. If you can use Rails you'll be able to use most anything else. Prior to Rails most web apps had proprietary frameworks powering them or no framework and were just an bunch of "pages" (endpoints) loosely strung together.

Rails also, for better or worse, has one of the easiest to use ORMs-- ActiveRecord. This helps new folks worry less about the intricacies of learning SQL (or whatever your persistence layer is) and more so about what writing a web service is really about.

Ruby as a language is also very expressive, is truly object oriented, and has all the right building blocks (that's kind of a pun actually), plus a very large amount of documentation and examples. It also is very good for meta programming which is what enables a lot of the rails magic (and fun).

At the end of the day learning more languages like PHP, Python, Java after Ruby is fairly trivial. I always tell noobs to learn whatever is useful for them, and stop worrying about what language.

I started with Ruby 10 years ago and now can write Java, PHP, Python, Scala, Elixir, Objective-C, and Swift; though I am by no means an expert in all of them. At some point you'll realize you've learned concepts and they're what is important. Not syntax.

P.s. don't let my username fool you ;) I'm just unfortunately hipster.

Edit: added some thoughts on why your first language isn't so relevant and a bit of clarity.

Edit 2: fixed absent minded use of rails where I should've written ruby.

[uniclaude]

> P.s. don't let my username fool you ;) I'm just unfortunately hipster.

The HN gods said it, you're not a n00bie but a real leet. ;)

  user:	rubyn00bie
  created: 1337 days ago

Back on topic, I would argue that it's more because bootcamps are here to get you a job fast, and that Rails and JS (maybe followed by Swift/iOS) probably offer the best (available jobs)/(time to learn) ratio of anything you can learn in a few months.

[aaronchall]

From a substitutes perspectives...

If you look at the absolute numbers, Ruby jobs are fewer, while (its primary competitor) Python jobs are higher (Python over Ruby by 2:1 according to both GlassDoor and Indeed). About the same ratio also seems to apply for job postings.

So why so many Ruby bootcamps? Maybe it's a relative thing, but I don't have estimates of the number of Ruby bootcamps versus Python bootcamps. But assuming there are more, I can hypothesize:

Python is increasingly being taught by universities. Thus there is a natural pipeline of Python users entering the workforce. Plus, with Python's "one obvious way to do it" philosophy and incredible online documentation, there's a lot less to learn to master it.

Thus, there would perhaps be more demand for Ruby bootcamps, even if the relative job market is smaller.

[WaxProlix]

How many of those Python jobs are web dev vs data science / analytics / whatever? Ruby is mostly RoR, but Python is pretty broadly applied these days.

[uniclaude]

This.

There might be more Python jobs, but a lot probably require knowledge that most people can't get in bootcamps.

A simple indeed search of Django vs Flask vs Rails shows there are much more demand for Ruby web developers, which is what bootcamps train for.

[wayn3]

because python is used by professionals and people who come out of science programs. math, physics, we all use python. and we have at the very least a rudimentary understanding of algorithms.

if you want to interview with us you better know at least a little bit about the foundations of CS.

you will not know jack, coming out of a 12 week bootcamp with no prior formal education.

on the ruby front, you are confronted with web hipsters who subscribe to this paradigm that formal training is a hindrance to "getting shit done" and "being pragmatic". way easier to roll with those guys. way easier.

thats the reason they teach you ruby instead of python.

- I'm not saying that the ruby crowd gets nothing done. they do. just a different mindset.

[edoceo]

Rails was only one of many Patterns of Enterprise Architecture projects. Martin Fowler made a book, then RoR came along, and the environment at the time was "hating" on PHP and ignoring it's PoEA frameworks (Cake) in search of a new shiny. Then it had an uptrend (common s-curve) and some sticking. Now JS is (re) having a similar trend.

Plus ça change I guess.

Also, the students I'm hiring (right out of USA community college) are taught Python and don't know any web-stuff yet.

So, I have to teach server-side PHP (dozens of legacy projects (still using PoEA)) and some HTML and JS.

As long as the know the code basics language syntax is a small hurdle.

Oh, and please SHIP something, anything to demonstrate at interviews.

[xiaoma]

Cake PHP was basically a copy of Rails. When Rails first appeared, it didn't exist.

[edoceo]

According to Wikipedia that is false. CakePHP in April 2005, RoR in December 2005

[xiaoma]

No, that's not true.

The history section of the wikipedia entry on rails says: "Hansson first released Rails as open source in July 2004, but did not share commit rights to the project until February 2005."[1]

The very second sentence of the wikipedia article on CakePHP is: " It follows the model–view–controller (MVC) approach and is written in PHP, modeled after the concepts of Ruby on Rails, and distributed under the MIT License."[2]

Then, in the fourth paragraph: "One of the project's inspirations was Ruby on Rails, using many of its concepts. "

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_on_Rails#History

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CakePHP

[edoceo]

I stand corrected.

[sopooneo]

PoEA. "Philippine Overseas Employment Administration"?

http://www.poea.gov.ph/