Rails - Mar 2005 - Part 2 of ONLamp.com Rails article is online

ONLamp.com has finally published part 2 of my Rails article! You can find it
here:

  http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/03/03/rails.html

It would be really nice if we could get this slash dotted again before the
weekend.
>From what I understand, you''re more likely to get accepted when
multiple
people submit something. So, to anyone who has the inclination: if you would
submit this to slash dot I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Curt

Curt Hibbs wrote:
> ONLamp.com has finally published part 2 of my Rails article! 
> You can find it here:
>
>   http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/03/03/rails.html
This is a good follow-up, and addresses some of my frustrations with the 
original article (not enough explanation of principles and rationale to 
complement the examples, leaving the application in a broken state, 
expectation that OnLAMP readers would tolerate a MySQL setup with no 
root password,...).

The links to Amy''s weblog and to the Four Days on Rails article are 
useful, and reinforce my own main concern. I have been aware of Ruby for 
a few years, and only became aware of Rails in recent months. The 
Rolling with Ruby on Rails article was what turned my interest into 
hands-on investigation. Learning Ruby is no problem - I have the Pickaxe 
book and have upgraded to the second edition. But learning Rails is a 
*huge* problem - the documentation is all over the place.

Rails needs a single ''approved''  tutorial and a single
reference manual,
both of which should be updated as part of any release. I think the 
reference manual has higher priority. Take a look at the Hibernate 
reference manual for an example of how it should be done:

    http://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/html/
    
http://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/pdf/hibernate_reference.pdf

The OnLAMP articles, plus slashdot exposure, will lead to thousands of 
people like me struggling to find the answers they need, and a 
substantial minority publishing their own summaries of what they have 
learned. This is wasteful.

regards

    Justin

On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 07:42:34 +0000, Justin Forder
<justin-zSfPWr5aQuznITO/+xaoB7VCufUGDwFn@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Curt Hibbs wrote:
> 
> > ONLamp.com has finally published part 2 of my Rails article!
> > You can find it here:
> >
> >   http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/03/03/rails.html
> 
> This is a good follow-up, and addresses some of my frustrations with the
> original article (not enough explanation of principles and rationale to
> complement the examples, leaving the application in a broken state,
> expectation that OnLAMP readers would tolerate a MySQL setup with no
> root password,...).
> 
> The links to Amy''s weblog and to the Four Days on Rails article
are
> useful, and reinforce my own main concern. I have been aware of Ruby for
> a few years, and only became aware of Rails in recent months. The
> Rolling with Ruby on Rails article was what turned my interest into
> hands-on investigation. Learning Ruby is no problem - I have the Pickaxe
> book and have upgraded to the second edition. But learning Rails is a
> *huge* problem - the documentation is all over the place.
> 
> Rails needs a single ''approved''  tutorial and a single
reference manual,
> both of which should be updated as part of any release. I think the
> reference manual has higher priority. Take a look at the Hibernate
> reference manual for an example of how it should be done:
> 
>     http://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/html/
> 
> http://www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/pdf/hibernate_reference.pdf
100% agreed.  There should be some place where you can go and get
readable information on all the components of Rails that''s suitable
for someone completely new to Rails (and probably even MVC). 
Currently, there''s the Wiki, the API pages, various Howtos, and more. 
The Wiki is good, but it''s hard to nail stuff down, and stuff gets
outdated easily.

Dave Thomas is writing a Rails book, so maybe that will help things
somewhat.  But there should still be a free online definitive guide
(in pdf/ps format as well) somewhere.  It''s too scattered now.