People have started cloning the Rails style framework in damn near every language out there nowadays. So if you're comfortable with one thing there might be a tool in that language already that could help speed things up. (I'm a PHP fan so pretty much anything I've got to say is relating to that. I'm also a masochist and tend to skip most of this stuff and just write my own stuff as necessary.)

Try taking a look at CAKE or PHOCOA (or symfony if you're using PHP5) if you want something rails-ish in PHP.

For AJAX itself you can try XAJAX for simplified PHP/AJAX stuff, or just dig straight into Prototype.js with any number of tutorials. (Tangental but very promising/helpful IMHO for AJAX stuff, especially in cleaning out inline code stuff: Behaviour.js.)

I have also become a masochist like nifkin. i use php and write my own stuff andbelieve it or not its easy. php is about the easiest language to use and pick up on and i dont think its going anywhere soon. I think there is a lot of hype arround ruby on rails but not many host are supporting it as a viable server side replaecment. also the learning curve on ruby is much higher even if you are well versed in a server side language.

i agree with spooky that rails is not as easy as its hyped to be and many will adopt it not realizing that whoever ugly php or like server side language is, they are buildt on the learning blocks that you need to become a good developer. ruby helps you skip the mundane tasks of 'writing it all out' but what happends when you come to an environment that does not support that, or better yet and environment that requires you to know the basics of server side coding ie ifstatments, loops etc. which are fundamental to all serverside and most scripting languages?

the way ruby was written is intuitive but takes for granted that you know those basic factors

anyway if you want to really learn something that may be arround for a while pick up the realitively easy ajax methods. take a couple months just to familiarize yourself with that , then I would say move to asp or .net. then if you are satisfied that you have those down, move to ruby.

Ruby is older than PHP. However, it only had a few Japanese users until Rails. If you understand OO, there is no problem understanding Ruby. It does have high OO from Smalltalk, which might be complicated for some. My rant is more on Rails than Ruby. I think that it was not designed right because OO should all be about functionality encapsulation. Don't give an object more functionality than it should have.

I´m a PHP programmer, and this fact won´t make me a strong defender of this language.

I think that you have to choose the language that is more usefull for you. Ruby is powerfull, but i think it will take a little time to get an acception, for example, like php.

If i could choose wich web language I would like to work, certainly I choose php. But... I´m a professional, and i have to get used on that what they are having more use.
My reality maybe must be different from yours, but here in brazil the hint now is ASP.NET ( for web and desktop ) and JAVA (including JSP). Any work with these two languages are paying very well for any developer... if you´re good on it, sure.

I think you have two ways when choosing a language:
1- or you get a base-language, like C, C++, that will give you the base of programming of any language;
2- or you can get a high-level language that is not so hard do learn, like ASP.NET, that do not require a deep knowledge in some base-languages, like C, but will give you a job that pays a good money (at least, in brazil).

If you will work developing for web, independent of any language you take, i think you should give a very special atention to AJAX. It will be the difference between who that have more or less knowledge.

That´s my opinion :)

based on a year and a half of experience at work i offer this advice: NOT JSP.

dammit i had a good post all put together here but the stupid wireless in the memphis airport just glitched out and ate it on me.

for most stuff using JSP is like using a flamethrower to light a cigarette, it's just big and unwieldy and doesn't make sense unless it's necessary for a really big situation.

community wise: if you have a ruby question, there's a community thats good and open. if you have a php question there's a community that's good and open and has a history spanning back over the better part of 10 years now. if you have a jsp question you have to ask in a java community that spans back a long way mostly on stuff that's not web based and people who don't know much about the web.

open source apps: if you want a forum in PHP there's dozens of options, and a good 10 or so that are really strong. if you want a forum in JSP you need to configure your server to operate the way the one option that's free requires things to operate. and hope you built your server environment against a compatable build of the JRE. and configure it to run servelets the way that one person wrote them, and edit your WEB-INF settings. see where this is headed? ;)