Reputation: 2853

Does Ruby on Rails affect how a web page looks?

Most of the time, whenever I hit a website that looks "bubbly" in nature, and all prettified in those pastel-like colors, I think to myself, "This was probably done with Rails." And, lo and behold, after some digging into the site's information pages I discover this is actually true. So, I pose the question, not knowing much about Rails but enough about Django to understand how the database stuff works:

Does RoR have any display-specific qualities that affect how a web page looks? Or do all RoR devs naturally use the same Adobe tools to make everything look so ubiquitous?

Upvotes: 34

Answers (8)

Nick Silberstein

Reputation: 833

Ruby on Rails is a server side technology, so it doesn't lend any specific quality to the user visible design. That said, it is a "trendy" technology so people who are likely to write their back-end code with RoR are likely to choose a particular "Web 2.0" style for their views.

Upvotes: 279

ziggurism

Reputation: 2284

Rails does add some stuff to the front end. Like to every html form, it will add a hidden input element authenticity_token.

You can also tell because rails URLs and form actions will never end with suffixes like .aspx or .php or .html or .jsp, and they won't usually append ?query=book&encoding=utf8 like you see on google. And they won't usually have superlong crufties like you see on amazon (eg http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Web-Development-Rails-Ruby/dp/1934356549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297922135&sr=8-1). Instead Rails prefers simple routing URLs. If amazon were written in rails, you might instead expect amazon.com/books/Agile-Web-Development-Rails-Ruby

So there are ways to spot a Rails app. I expect other web frameworks, especially the ones that emulate rails, would duplicate some or all of these features, so this isn't a sure-fire method, but it helps.

Upvotes: 0

A.C. Wright

Reputation: 941

Short Answer: NO

However...

As a Rails developer I can say that due to the Agile nature of Rails and the speed in which you can develop web applications with Rails I do find myself having more time freed up on a project to spend polishing the user interface. I believe this may be a reason you often see more polished looking Rails sites.

So in my mind I believe your choice of framework can have a direct correlation to the end product that is produced!

Upvotes: 1

mezmo

Reputation: 2480

The theory is that RoR makes that backend stuff easier, so more time can, and apparently is, spent on the front end stuff.

Upvotes: 3

apneadiving

Reputation: 115541

that's a funny question with a funny description :) ... bubbly!

As a madman, I develop with RoR, it's kind of rule in our area. We learn madness from the beginning, as a result of http://railsforzombies.org...

May wise men follow a wise path!

Upvotes: 1

Rafal

Reputation: 2576

As a Ruby on Rails developer, I can tell you that most Ruby on Rails developers are passionate about their work and we pay a lot of attention to details when building websites as much backend as front end. Its not just a trend, its a way of thinking and working.

Upvotes: 11