Learning Rails, Some Thoughts On …

I’ve been learning Ruby on Rails. Who hasn’t? Right?

Well, I think it’s safe to say there are some caveats to be aware of for anyone who is considering learning Rails.

First of all, all those beautiful screencasts and demos of building a working web app in minutes are a cool and catchy, but a little bit misleading. The truth is, if you are new to Rails, it isn’t going to be so simple or easy. If you’ve built web apps a few times before (you’re experienced) in PHP, then some things will be easier. But Rails is a lot different. Ruby is a pretty different language also.

You will need to learn Ruby, and, you should learn Ruby before sticking your nose into Rails. Trying to program in Ruby by the conventions you may be used to in other languages is possible, but not in Rails. Rails itself is Ruby, but it is (like any programming framework) boxed in to a a particular approach.

So, you need to learn Ruby, then learn how Rails is different from more usual Ruby code. Rails establishes a truckload of things it will do for you, but you have to learn what they are and you have to do things the way Rails expects them in order to take advantage of its capabilities properly. This is how frameworks go. You must bend to somebody else’s paradigm. The Cocoa framework for programming GUI applications on OS X is an example of this.

There is a lot in Rails. A LOT. It’s been under development for a long time now and has grown and matured pretty well. That said, it is a framework and it means you will need to get used to reading the API and searching the internet and reading books for answers. A big caveat, is that many books already have outdated information, and many web sites as well. Rails is typical of Ruby development, it changes quickly, it’s a moving target sometimes.

If you are new to web app development, don’t expect the Agile Web Development With Rails book to make things clear for you at first. It’s a whirlwind tromp through a lot of technologies all at once. Ruby for Rails is a better book at holding your hand and explaining a lot of things. But before all of that, make sure you’ve read a book like Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional and you have the ‘pickaxe’ book, Programming Ruby, 2nd edition, as a reference book.

The Ruby Cookbook and the Rails Cookbook are also useful additions as are most of the Rails books out there. Every single one of them will show you different approaches to doing similar things. Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy, is another book that is very recent and has excellent info on setting your system up and getting things working well before you even start coding.