Dylan Pierce, Author of PHP to Ruby

Like you, I started with PHP. At the time I was first dabbling into programming, and Ruby on Rails was just in it’s infancy. I saw the value of learning Rails. However, it wasn’t as easy to get started and PHP just clicked for me because it was so common sense oriented.

Over time, I learned the nitty gritty details of the PHP ecosystem. I was lucky to join at the time Composer first arrived on the scene. We experienced an explosion of innovation and a plethora of packages and patterns to make PHP development even more productive and modern.

My first steps into professional application development were with Symfony 2, and later taking a deep dive into Laravel. I have even had the opportunity to appear on the early Larachat podcasts.

However, it’s impossible to not hear about how great working with Ruby on Rails is. My curiousity piqued when I heard a local startup was working on transitioning from PHP to Ruby on Rails. I now work for that startup RVshare full time.

PHP will continue to be a great option for early stage startups that need an inexpensive way to experiment with new business ideas. The same goes for Ruby on Rails. However, knowing both will open new and unique doors for you to help businesses transition between languages.

This is the book I wish I had when I started my journey into learning Ruby coming from a static language background like PHP. I hope this kickstarts your journey into becoming a true ployglot programmer.