php mysql max() question

[Craig White]

On Mon, 2009-04-13 at 07:52 -0700, Alex Dean wrote:
> On Apr 12, 2009, at 7:47 PM, Craig White wrote:
> 
> > One thing is certain, I have been spoiled by ruby on rails and php  
> > just
> > seems so crude and ugly now.
> 
> Comparing PHP (language) to Ruby on Rails (framework) is a little  
> off.  It's like comparing an engine to a car.  (Can you believe this I  
> can't drive this stupid engine unless I add wheels!  Gawd!)
> 
> Write the equivalent code in Ruby (without Rails) to get a more  
> accurate comparison.  You said something like 'how can I do this with  
> without PEARDB', which is more-or-less the same as asking how you can  
> do database queries in Ruby without ActiveRecord.  It is, of course,  
> perfectly possible.  It's easy to forget how much the framework is  
> providing for you, though perhaps that's your point.
> 
> I did PHP professionally for 6 years, and switched to Ruby/Rails about  
> 1 year ago.  I agree Rails is a great framework for web applications  
> development, and much better than the PHP-based me-too Rails clones  
> like Cake.  I just think PHP has acquired an un-earned bad  
> reputation.  It's a very capable language.  The low entry barrier is  
> both it's blessing and curse.
> 
> ActiveRecord is my chief complaint about Rails, as it tends to treat  
> the database as a giant hash table (query in a loop, anyone?), which  
> discards a lot of benefits you get from using a relational database.
----
yeah, I agree with pretty much everything you said but as I said on
another in this thread, I am pretty much stuck with the development as
it is going which means no pear, no CakePHP, etc. Indeed, my point was
that having the framework of RoR at my disposal versus the narrow scoped
PHP code without framework or abstraction stuff like pear just seems so
rude and crude.

I think the big complaint about RoR these days is the changing API,
which has vastly changed from 1.2.x => 2.0/2.1 => 2.2 => 2.3 and while
it probably is all for the best, it renders all dead tree documentation
obsolete and causes great confusion for people trying to follow on-line
stuff written for versions not compatible with someone who just installs
the latest stable version. It has created an entry barrier...fortunately
for me, I got in fairly early so I was able to glean the logic of it
all.

As for ActiveRecord...seems to follow the adage, that which makes you
rich also makes you poor. It's quite enthusing to be able to write a
single statement that performs the sql query, paginates and returns the
results in a hash that can be displayed with minimal amounts of view
code but of course it's not perfect.

Craig


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