which technology is best for a Facebook application Ruby on Rails or C# and ASP?

Question

hi,

My friend and I want to write a Facebook application. We've narrowed down the list of possible technologies to Ruby on Rails and C# with ASP. Here are the pros and cons we've thought of.

Cons:

• ASP - proprietary tools like Visual Studio etc. cost (lots of) money. We both don't know ASP (although we're not bad at C#).
• RoR - It's scripting so might be harder to maintain. My friend doesn't know RoR at all (but he's a fairly proficient programmer so will probably be able to pick it up quickly).

Pros:

• ASP - Facebook has an official SDK for .NET.
• RoR - I know RoR. It's open source, free and has fast development time.

What says the community? Is there something we haven't thought of?

Answer 1

I would be inclined to suggest ASP.Net, not only becuase I am biased but becuase...

• Express editions of that silver lined Dev Enviroment Visual Studio are available

• As you said an SDK exists for ASP.Net

• The msdn can provide more than enough documentation for any proficient programmer or novice alike

• There appears to be loads of good examples on the net for developing FB apps in ASP

• ROR is ugly!

Those are my reasons :) good luck with your app!

Answer 2

Well, i would suggest Ruby on Rails, but i am biased :)

The API also works for Ruby on Rails applications, there are even two plugins that make life easier for you. More info at Facebooks developer wiki. Googling will uncover tons of examples and tutorials. Walk through one of those.

I think ruby and RoR are beautiful, but hey, that's subjective i guess ;)

I also disagree with your assumption that Ruby on Rails is harder to maintain. You should use TDD/BDD in any platform and that should totally cover you.