Rails apps are rare and getting replaced. Most web apps are static builds where the tools listed are not used all at once and largely irrelevant outside the dev environment.
> John runs a single command. The app boots instantly, working forms, instant loading times, blazing fast navigation.
Meanwhile in the real world - users do not care at all if it's a Rails app with refreshes or a React app. In most cases, the Rails app is actually better due to its simplicity.
The question I think we should be asking: Why? Why are we replacing everything with React and a bunch of other libs on top of it?
The front-end dev space feels like a cacophony of people all blurting out the same over-engineered stack. If your app is a few lists, a chart, and a form... Does it _reaaallly_ need React?
37signals is afterall running multiple successful products with Rails, and one of them is an email client.
> The front-end dev space feels like a cacophony of people all blurting out the same over-engineered stack. If your app is a few lists, a chart, and a form... Does it _reaaallly_ need React?
If your app is that simple you don't even need Rails.
In my experience, everything starts that simple. But then time passes, team members rotate, and... your PM keeps asking to add more and more features... And that's when the "simplicity of hotwire" becomes a nightmare to maintain. And guess what, the next dev that comes to the project will hate all the hotwire crap, and whoever built it.
It's easier to make a simple list and a form with React/vue/svelte even if it seems overkill at first, because when things get more difficult you already have the big guns. If you start with the tools to build simple, well.... wish your project stays that simple forever, or that you're given enough time to rewrite everything.
> 37signals is afterall running multiple successful products with Rails, and one of them is an email client.
These applications may be a successful product, despite of hotwire, but they're not a good example of anything. They feel like shit to me (using them from Europe). And again, the main problem is not the end result but the maintenance. If there's anything we've got from all of this mess, is that implementing UIs as "components" are the best idea in the last 10 years.
Stop beating the dead horse of variables interpolated in templates. It just doesn't work (unless you work alone).
It’s just Basecamp and Hey now right? I liked when they had more than 2 products as a reference for Rails apps. I still feel immense nostalgia for Basecamp 1 and Backpack It.
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I love Rails but disagree. Using InertiaJS and React, Vue, or Svelte for some of the front end/views makes too much sense. The new Rails Way should be optionally allowing this.
$1M ARR and 10k+ emails? Those are rookie numbers. There's nothing special about a rails app achieving that.
You'd be surprised what kind of far worse junk than anything we're talking about can scale the same or better and is ergonomic to another type of dev. This is all just bikeshedding.
Software complexity is bikeshedding? I disagree. I think it's one of the most important things, especially for startups.
Of course Hey is still young... But I'm pretty sure you also know that they have Basecamp with 3M+ users. I mentioned Hey because I think it's a great example of sth more than lists/forms.
At some point, the business cannot be just one app or one tech stack. More devs will come aboard that disagree with the chosen tools and for very good reasons. You must work with the devs you have and the expertise they bring. Only the most out of touch CTO would avoid sunsetting legacy apps. There's the business side concerned with functionality, and then there's the hiring side concerned with implementation details. Both are key to getting the best devs and the best results.
Wait until you find out how many YC startups use Rails...
Or how big Shopify is. Or how many other large companies use it. And how many startups use it but just don't talk about it because it isn't cool anymore.
Rails apps are rare and getting replaced. Most web apps are static builds where the tools listed are not used all at once and largely irrelevant outside the dev environment.
> John runs a single command. The app boots instantly, working forms, instant loading times, blazing fast navigation.
Same with node? npm run build && npm start