DO I QUALIFY ROR TIER 2 BENIFETS

1 ANSWERS

1. amomipais82
   

   Hi There,
   There is a lot of documentation out there, and a Google search on most anything rails related will find something for you. The problem is that Rails is a live framework - it's being defined by developers as they use it. For the most part things are stable, but because Rails is under rapid development, the documentation you may find may not apply to the release you are using. There is a lot of documents for rails 1.0 and 1.1, but finding something pertinent to 1.2 is a little tougher - especially when you are looking at newer features of Rails - like RJS. THE source for your documentation of Rails is the Rails Framework Documentation. This source is fantastic - but not for a beginner programmer. It's not overly clear what areas of the docs one should be looking at to learn some aspect of Rails. Once you have some experience with it, it becomes very clear that ActionView::Base is where you should be looking to learn what a basic view is capable of, or ActionView::Helpers::ScriptaculousHelper to see how to include the Scriptaculous features.
   
   One of the most recognized web sites for learning rails from scratch is Amy Hoy's Slash7. There's lots of good information in here, but if you are an experienced developer in other languages, I think a book might be better for you. Luckily there are some very good ones:
   
       * Agile Development with Rails (unfortunately this one is not yet available at the local Chapters, but I was lucky enough to see a first edition of it for a bit, and it covered everything to get started).
       * Programming Ruby - The Pragmatic Programmers Guide - aka "The Pick Axe". This deals with the Ruby language itself, which is a must to understand Rails properly.
   
   Even with the books though, be very careful to get something recent. I can get the Agile Development book at one of the Chapters in town, but it's a first edition which does not cover newer features like RJS.
   
   Paradigm Shift
   Most web developers I know would have a problem picking up rails. It's not that it is hard, it's more that it is different. Between the database abstractions, the automated JavaScript generation, and the MVC framework, how you accomplish a task is very different from the tried and true ways we've fought hard to learn. Luckily if you are a good developer who can apply concepts and not just memorized routines, this shift can be done rather quickly - a single project should be sufficient.
   
   Access to skilled coders
   Rails is new enough that none of the people in my circle of contacts knows how to work with it, if they've even heard of it. (Ok, Aaron Seigo can probably code circles around me with Rails, but he can code circles around just about anybody with near any language.) So, to talk to someone one on one about how to do something with Rails is not too likely just yet. There is the #rubyonrails IRC channel though. Most the people there seem to be new to rails themselves (myself included), or only use Rails for a web site (from a design perspective), rather than a web based application (from a developer perspective). So when you want to know how to do something that's even a little bit odd for a web site, you may be left to find the answer yourself. Occasionally there are a few really skilled folks on the list, but I'm finding they are not usually online when I need their level of expertise. Don't get me wrong though - the Rails community is very supportive and will try to help you.

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