David Heinemeier Hansson on the Future of Rails

Rails is presented as a framework that still serves small teams building large applications across web, email, mobile, native, and API contexts. DHH says its value is not mainly in making large companies slightly more efficient, but in keeping web development simple while adapting to new approaches like Turbolinks and API mode.

Reading notes

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• Rails still aims to be the full-stack framework that makes apps like Basecamp, Github, Shopify, Kickstarter, Airbnb, and Zendesk possible and enjoyable for small teams.
• The web treats Ruby, Go, and Node as equal choices for generating HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, but DHH says he has not seen anything that clearly outperforms Rails for the projects he makes.
• Turbolinks has gained momentum, and Turbolinks 5 focuses on integration with native iOS and Android wrappers.
• Basecamp 3 used that approach to ship native clients without building large native teams.
• DHH sees API mode as widening Rails’ appeal to client-side MVC apps and fully native mobile apps.
• He says most of Rails remains relevant for API-only apps as well as full-stack apps.
• The Rails mission is to equip small teams to tackle big projects.
• Rails is meant to help one or a few programmers build apps that span web, email, mobile, native, and API.
• He describes Rails as a counter to the growing complexity of web development and the vendors that benefit from that complexity.
• Rails remains countercultural through ideas like Convention over Configuration and the menu being Omakase.
• He sees his Reconsider post as a continuation of holding strong views, not as something that would change Rails’ perception much.
• He says Rails is now mainstream in reach, even if some of its principles remain countercultural.
• He welcomes the rise of functional programming and says Ruby can absorb ideas from it without giving up procedural or object-oriented ideas.