Rails & Beyond

Two popular templating formats in Rails are HAML and ERB. I did not use HAML initially because it was too DRY. That was my initial reaction to the new language. Or it was for people who put too much emphasis on "Don't Repeat Yourself" philosophy. But Jesse Crockett and his project forced me to learn HAML and somehow I don't regret that. I use HAML for all Ruby projects. But I also use ERB and I will explain why a bit later.

HAML is great and I was wrong. I realized I have an aversion towards unreadable code. I did not see myself reading and writing CFML tags for a long time that is why I gave up my job to be a bum (not really). Seriously I also hate Dreamweaver. Why do they create these products? There are always better open source alternatives.

Indenting and Outdenting

How did they learn Rails?

"They" are the core team. Click here to check out their interesting answers.

How did I learn Rails?

I learned as I got new projects. I found myself grappling with e-commerce application issues (not just Rails applications, those monolithic PHP apps too). I really love reinventing the e-commerce wheel so I am building my own platform.

Did I start with the language or did I start with the framework?

Simultaneously learned both.

I am new to Rails. Do I need to read a book?

Highly suggest doing so and start reading the DHH book. The Agile Web Development With Rails book written by David. I knew someone who said he knew Rails without reading ANY book, but naturally he googled the concepts behind Rails because I don't think he's a genius at all.

The most important concepts behind Rails are MVC, REST, DRY, ORM (ActiveRecord).