Ask HN: Should I code my next project in PHP or Ruby?

If you can do it in php do it. Don't waste your time learning another language. Focus on your product, not on what the average geek says.

I had this dilemma while back. I decided to suck it up and learn Ruby and Rails. I now realized that I hate PHP and have used rails, django, and play for all of my web applications and have not looked back.<p>If you are in a learning mood, I'd say go with rails.

<i>Personally</i>, I prefer Ruby to PHP. But:<p>If the point is to build the video hosting project, and you are productive using PHP, then that's probably the best option.<p>If the point is to increase the breadth of your development skills while building the video hosting project, choosing a new language like Ruby might make sense.<p>If you've identified a specific technical challenge in what you want to do that makes PHP problematic, investigating alternatives (including different languages, though that's probably not the first thing to look at) for that particular problem also makes sense.

Code is code - it's the concepts behind it that matter. If this is going to paying project then go PHP - it's what you know and you'll be able to get it done faster and probably with higher quality. If this is just a project for your own gratification then I suggest Ruby - or Node.js or Haskell or Erlang or 8086 Assembler or ... It doesn't matter. When you are your own client you do what you need to do to make you happy. Doing something because we busy bodies on HN think you should ultimately does nothing for my happiness or yours.

I was in the same boat as you a few months ago.<p>Then I thought to myself. I wonder if Zuckerberg back in 2004 asked himself that.<p>If Facebook is capable of running the most popular website in the world successfully on PHP, then it'll probably be good enough for me!<p>My vote goes for PHP. Stick with what you know.

I was in the same shoes, and I decided to learn Rails. I haven't looked back since, but then again, I was in a startup and wanted to walk out with some new skills.<p>Rails is great, not for everything, but it does make standing up a new site pretty darn easy. Personally, I won't touch PHP again if I have my choice.

I'll just reiterate what other people have already said: If this is a serious project then stick with what you know. By all means, learn Ruby by using it for some side projects, but don't use it for serious projects until you <i>really</i> understand it or you'll just end up writing bad code.

Ruby (or my recommended choice of Python) is likely going to take you longer in the short term than PHP is. But you'll probably save some time with maintenance and new features in the future, and learn something new.<p>So, if you're not in a big rush, I'd learn a better language than PHP.

Nothing wrong with PHP, just use what you know and are good at.

If you're comfortable with PHP, and have previously used it in some other project, do it with PHP. Because if you learn a new language now, you'll lose a lot of time.

Ruby on Rails. It saves you so much time and its beautiful.