Comments on: Why Making Web Apps with Rails Is Awesome

By: Tyler

Tyler — Sun, 15 May 2011 13:21:25 +0000

Great article. I’ve been working with rails for about 4 months and have the same issues with nothing but “Build a blog” tutorials.

By: Sola

Sola — Tue, 03 May 2011 03:46:58 +0000

Good guy, good writeup, good idea. You would one day write a book on RoR. Pls write it in the same format you wrote this article. By the way I was trying to get in on RoR but couldn’t get anything like this writeup then. Now Drupal is my pal.

By: Jatin

Jatin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:41:54 +0000

Thanks Marc. I was thinking of developing an app using Rails, but your article gave me a boost to go ahead.

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:50:51 +0000

we recently start using RoR where I work and our development time for web applications has been cut in half…
We’ve been saving a lot of money this way and clients are obviously happy with the swift turnarounds!!

By: Marc Gayle

Marc Gayle — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:20:34 +0000

@Jacob and @Web App I agree. It does require a shift in mindset – but I think that’s mainly because unless you used an OOP framework in PHP (like CakePHP) the vast majority of development in PHP is procedural (no?).

It definitely does take some adjusting, but once you go through it you will be pleased :)

By: Jacob Gube

Jacob Gube — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:45:12 +0000

@Web App: Exactly. Major paradigm shift. It’s almost as if sometimes you have to trick yourself into thinking you don’t know PHP.

By: Web App

Web App — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:49:45 +0000

Major paradigm shift from building apps with PHP. There are some modules for PHP and some very popular frameworks, however nothing like what you explained.

I’m sure there is a learning curve. Once that has been accomplished it seems one could breeze right through building an app.

By: Marc Gayle

Marc Gayle — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:05:40 +0000

@Merengue Well I started doing everything everybody says – railstutorial.org, railsforzombies, tryruby.org like Jacob recommends.

Rails & Ruby are two different things. Ruby is the language and Rails is the framework. If you plan on going the Ruby way first, make sure you understand that distinction. That tripped me up for a while – because I was wondering when I would learn – in Ruby – how to do things that Rails does (not Ruby).

But honestly, where I really learnt the most (and I am still learning and have a far way to go) is general brute force. I started my web app and asked and still do ask LOTS of questions along the way.

Both on StackOverflow.com and on IRC in #RubyOnRails on irc.freenode.net and anybody else that I know is a Rails genius. I constantly pick their brain on how to attack problems.

I would say pick a smallish project, CompVersions turned out to be a pretty big undertaking for me – but it forced me to learn more, more quickly so I guess that’s good – so if you can find something small then I would encourage you to do so, and just try to build it.

You would be surprised how far you can go from doing it the hard way.

By: Merengue

Merengue — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 01:41:53 +0000

Marc, congratulations! You had me a great improvement in just 8 months. Where did you start learning ror? What tools did you use(books, sites, groups, blogs, etc) to move forward with your project? Thanks.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:46:20 +0000

Hey,

Nice, easy reading article.
I am coming from PHP and been on the fence about RoR for some time. Maybe will give it a shot after this, hoping the installation on a Windows station is as easy as XAMPP…

Thanks.