e.laborate is built primarily with Ruby on Rails.

Framework catching on fast with programmers who say it's easier to code than competitors

Often known as Rails or RoR, Ruby on Rails is a free Web application framework that programmers use to build Web software.

What started as a grass-roots movement has become one of the hottest new things in programming technology, generating the same level of passion among its adherents as Linux, another outsider technology that moved into the mainstream.

Created in 2004 by Danish programmer David Heinemeier Hansson, Rails is catching fire with a new generation of Web 2.0 programmers. Fans say it's a dream platform for writing software with ease and simplicity. It's also easier to code and maintain than competitors such as Java and PHP, they say.

Originally used by small and independent developers, Rails is beginning to attract attention from banks and corporations that rely on huge software applications and are drawn to its sophisticated engineering. Apple shipped Ruby with Leopard, the newest version of its OSX operating system released last year.

" 'Awesome' is really the best way to describe Rails,' " said Scott Abel, chief executive of Austin-based software company Spiceworks Inc. "Programmers love it because it's fast, it's straightforward and it's elegant."

Programmers with a wide range of skills are being drawn to Rails, said Marcel Molina, a member of the 12-person Rails core team, which acts as the gatekeeper to all changes made to the Rails framework.

"It's drawing programmers who are the polar opposite of each other," said Molina, who works out of his Travis Heights home as a Rails developer for Washington, D.C.-based Info-Ether LLC.

"It's simple enough to attract the people who have very little programming expertise, such as graphic designers. But it also appeals to people with computer sciences degrees who are building complex systems for big corporations."

When Spiceworks was launched in 2006, its founders spent the first month researching what Web framework to use to build its software.

Choosing correctly was key, Abel said.

"You pick the right one, and everybody wants to be on your team; the cool, super-smart people flock to you. It's huge for a tiny startup competing for resources," he said. "It also gives you an advantage in the time it takes to get your product to market, and the size and speed of your application."

Spiceworks' goal was to create easy-to-use network management software that could be downloaded quickly from its Web site.

His team looked at a number of options in addition to Rails, including Java, JavaScript, PHP and Python.

Ruby won hands down.

"It has an incredibly fast development time," Abel said. "I can literally walk over to a developer's desk and say 'What if we wanted to do this?' And he'll go 'Let's try it.' Then he just types it in and refreshes his browsers, and that's it. There's just no wait time. It's really easy to try a lot of different approaches very quickly."

Abel said Ruby made it possible to create a small application that can be downloaded and running in five minutes. The service is free, but it brings users into an online community where business can run targeted advertisements.

"Rails used to be a very cool hobby, and you'd go attend conferences on weekends," he said. "Over the last year, we've seen the transformation of it into a profession.

"We saw it happen with Java and Linux. Now Rails has gone from a grass-roots movement that was self-funded to an in-demand skill. And the cool thing is that Austin is becoming very much an epicenter for it."

A programming gem

Ruby on Rails is an open-source, free system written in the Ruby programming language that is designed to make Web development easier and faster. Ruby comes from the birthstone for July. Rails is the development framework that allows applications to be created with a lot less coding than other approaches require.

For information on the two-year-old Austin user group, Austin On Rails, go to austinonrails.org.