As you probably know, Derek Sivers is the guy who created CD Baby and eventually sold it for some big bucks. He wrote it in PHP originally and then down the road set about rewriting it in Rails. His troubles are the stuff of legend:
7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails
That article came out in 2007 but being newly infatuated with Rails, I’m wondering whether anything has changed to make Rails more of a wise bet in the meantime, or should I stick with my good old ugly PHP girlfriend?
Does anyone agree that Rails does not offer any significant advantages over PHP?
Re-writing an existing site is almost always a bad idea. It’s hard to put your heart into retreading an old wheel. I worked on a rewrite of a site from CGIs to a Java app server and saw several programmers quit because of it. For one, they preferred their old way of doing things and did not want to learn Java. Secondly, I believe they did not have the enthusiasm to re-write a ton of legacy code that they had been maintaining reluctantly to begin with. Far better to try Rails out on a new task and see how it fares. At least then you are putting it on an even footing with PHP in the psychological motivation sweepstakes.