Learning Rails: Live Edition

Ruby and Rails Style

It’s definitely possible to write Ruby on Rails code in ways that look familiar to programmers from other languages. However, that code often isn’t really idiomatic Ruby, as Ruby programmers have chosen other paths. In general, this book will always try to introduce new concepts using syntax that’s likely to be familiar to developers from other environments, and then explain what the local idiom does. You’ll learn to write idiomatic Ruby that way (if you want to), and at the same time you’ll figure out how to read code from the Ruby pros.

We’ve tried to make sure that the code we present is understandable to those without a strong background in Ruby. Ruby itself is worth an introductory book (or several), but the Ruby code in a lot of Rails applications is simple, thanks to the hard work the framework’s creators have already put into it. You may want to install Rails in Chapter 1, and then explore Appendix A, “A Quick Guide to Ruby,” if you want some background before diving in.