Following up on my recent post on Ruby and Rails’ enterprise-readiness, we might want to rethink any strategies comparing or opposing Ruby with Java. Don’t get me wrong: Ruby is a breeze where Java is a mouldy draught; Ruby is a butterfly where Java is an ostrich; Ruby makes you smile where Java is often a maniacal grin. But also they’re both gusts of air, both have wings, both evoke emotion. Both are object oriented languages, both have classes, and methods, and instance variables, and structured in-code documentation, and closures (more or less), both are pass-by-reference-by-value, both have apis for Lists and Maps and Files and Regexps… The list goes on and on.

Most Java coders that are first introduced to Ruby recognize a lot of things; and what they don’t know, still feels like what they’ve always wanted. There is the new syntax to learn, and so many new apis, and Ruby’s coding standards differ from Java’s — but let’s not overreact. If you’re a good Java (or otherwise OO) programmer, you will easily pick up Ruby.

All this goes to say that the introduction of Ruby and Rails in the (Java-oriented) enterprise must not be hindered by arguments like “We have already invested so much in Java, we don’t want that to go to waste.” If you have invested in a Java infrastructure, in Java-skilled developers, you have already invested in Ruby and Rails. You have (hopefully) trained your developers to understand object orientation, as well as things like MVC architecture, test-driven development, standards-based programming. Java is but a tool — or at least it should be. Ruby just builds on that.

The same goes for the Java-based infrastructure. Investments there aren’t wasted either. The time will come, sooner rather than later, when Ruby and Rails will neatly run inside a JEE application server. We will be able (if we aren’t already) to develop web frontends in Rails, talking to JEE business components, message queues, connectors, web services, data sources and what not. We will be freed from the restraints that Java forces upon frontend developers, with its xml and pojos and faces and struts.

Let Ruby and Java blossom in the enterprise — together like a daisy and a rambler rose!