Some prefer clear, flexible easy to debug code instead of coding to 15 layers of abstraction. For an HTTP API you have to discard more than half of Rails anyway.
I agree so hard on this. Anyone recommending rails as some sort of elevation of a restful API is puzzling to me. It’s easy to get started for people that don’t want to code. Instead they want to spend all of their time memorizing the cascade of configuration objects where you have to learn the exact phrase to get rails to do what you want it to.
I know this is all opinion and I have colleagues who are excellent engineers that prefer rails, but it goes against everything I enjoy about software development.
I wouldn’t call Rails ‘easy to get started’. The learning curve is steep, but once you get over it, you can hop into nearly any Rails application and immediately be able to contribute. I prefer Rails for most things work related for that very reason.
Having worked a couple places where Python or Go microservices were hyped up, but every installation, DB schema, and folder structure seemed to be built with a different idea in mind, and or debated, I have a strong appreciation for right standards around convention. Especially when I don’t have to get into debates like whether DB table names should be plural or singular.
On the side I really do enjoy working with Go though, and wouldn’t hesitate to use it if it seemed like the right tool for the moment.
I suspect you will see a lot more of rails (and rails like frameworks) being used just because they are so simple to use and beginners can use it without understanding too deeply. Having more people who can understand/build/fix will always win out, and rails is what most coding bootcamp teach. So there’s just going to be too many folks who will choose rails over more suitable languages.
I’m not super convinced that’s a bad thing though. The software industry has always suffered a perennial shortage of engineers. What I predict will happen is that an ecosystem of tools will spring up around rails and there will be serious investment in improving performance rather than the framework being abandoned.
Remember how kubernetes changed infrastructure development to managing config files? It’s what I see happening to most areas of software development. The more experienced software engineers will then be responsible for optimizing/bug fixing/ scaling.
Putting aside that your post kinda reads as if it were written ten years ago (most bootcamps do not teach Rails and it's vanishingly unlikely it'll reach the position it was ten years ago: cf JavaScript), I take some issue with
> beginners can use it without understanding too deeply...So there’s just going to be too many folks who will choose rails over more suitable languages.
It's not about "beginners" or "more suitable languages". You need an ability to build highly specialised software and you need general frameworks that will not be optimised for {specialised thing} but can do most of the things that you need for a certain task without having to hand write everything. Without the latter, all that happens is constant yak shaving and reinventions of the wheel. Rails (for example) is highly suitable for many things, getting clever points for not using it is great, but it's not very practical.
A lot of bootcamps in Europe are still teaching RoR. (I doubt "most", but I also doubt "most" for any single language once you include JS for front-end/"full stack", Java for "back end", and Python for ML/DS focus.)
Bootcamps sell themselves based on employment placement, not cool technology or deep knowledge. In this regard RoR, Java, and even PHP are going to be bootcamp milch cows for years to come.
