Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Ruby

Posted by Zachary Stites
Zachary Stites
3,130 Points

Ruby (Rails) or Java

I'm a Web Development student at Full Sail University. Next month we are responsible for teaching ourselves a server side language, which I am really looking forward too. I'm just looking for some feedback on what you guys think I should learn. I'm really debating between Ruby (Rails) and Java.

What are some key differences between the two?

---Things To Keep In Mind---

I'm focusing and will continue to focus my career on developing web based applications, but I don't want to be limited to just that. So I want to learn a language that is flexible across the board.

Something else to keep in mind: I am well versed in ActionScript, JavaScript, JQuery, and am currently in a PHP/Database Class. I just wanted to say that because I've heard Java is closely related to ActionScript so that would make picking it up much easier.

Thank you so much for any feedback, I truly appreciate it. I'm looking forward to reading the responses from such an educated group.

3 Answers

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Which language should I learn is a favorite of new users, here's one of the many threads on the topic.

Andrew Chalkley
STAFF
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Andrew Chalkley
Andrew Chalkley
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Play around with both. See how you feel. Go with the one you enjoy the most :)

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Here are some interesting thoughts from the PHP teacher Randy Hoyt.

People [often] recommend starting with Python or Ruby first, not with Ruby on Rails. Big difference.

Python and Ruby are both great languages, but you won't be coding web pages if you start with them. You'll be at a command line, writing little programs that run on a desktop computer.

PHP will let you learn programming in the context of the web. Once you have a good handle on how server-side programming works, it will be so much easier to make the transition to some of these other things (Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, etc.)

source: http://teamtreehouse.com/forum/forsake-php-and-go-with-python-ror-maybe#show-comment-5547