What's wrong with “magic”?

Question

I\'m trying to decide whether to use a Rails or a Django guru to create a web app for me. I\'ve been recommended to use Django because it uses less \"magic\". From my perspe

Answer 1

Magic obfuscates functionality. It creates behaviors implicitly instead of explicitly, such that the programmer has no need to understand how the behavior works, and more importantly, how they might go about changing it.

When a coder has a complete grasp of the code base they are working with, "magic" can be a big productivity gain. But when working with a third-party system like a web framework, which has a high degree of complexity, it may take much longer to gain that level of expertise.

Now, to the matter of who you should hire to do the job: if you are concerned about the long term ability of other programmers to understand your contractors' code, it may make sense to go with Django (it is certainly my preference). However, there are many, many Rails experts out there who can maintain your website well into the future.

The choice should come down to who among the contractors you are evaluating, a) have a proven track record, and b) you trust. A good developer will do well on either Rails or Django.