In stark contrast to Panda, Dave Thomas presents the pragmatic approach to deciding between J2EE and Ruby on Rails.

Using the full might of a J2EE stack to write a small stand-alone application is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. But I keep hearing the sound of nuts being pulverized as developers seem to think that using anything other than J2EE is somehow unprofessional.

At the same time, there are situations that call for the shock and awe that is J2EE.

It’s definitely a continuum. Rails doesn’t replace, well, anything. Things are never replaced, but increase and decrease in relevance. Rails has decreased the relevance of a lot of environments, including J2EE, for a growing niche of application types. But it hasn’t replaced them and never will.

With that out of the way, Dave moves to answer “when is Rails appropriate?” and “how can I introduce it where I work?”. Great advice for picking an entry and moving your company through the transition to Rails.