From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2006-02-09T02:16:50+09:00
Subject: Re: Start from the start - Ruby or ruby on rails

On Feb 8, 2006, at 3:53 AM, eain.jones@gmail.com wrote:

> I'm concerned that the design and management of the
> database could add a serious jump in my already steep learning curve.

I'll take the road less traveled and recommend you stick with your  
first instinct which was not to use Rails.  I know most people say  
it's so easy to learn and it is, for a web development framework.   
However, the key there is that there is more to learn.

Plus, Rails sits on top of Ruby, so starting at the top means you  
might be a little fuzzy down the road about what is a Railsism and  
what is actually part of the language.  I think it's much easier to  
go in the other direction, after you have a solid foundation in the  
language, though I'm probably in the minority with this line of thought.

Your needs sounded very modest, so you should be able to easily get  
something going with the language itself and the help of one or two  
standard libraries.  Here are my recommendations:

1.  Use CGI or WEBrick servlets to handle the logic.  These are very  
low-tech compared to Rails, but trivial to get going.

2.  Give YAML a shot, before you resort to using XML.  I'm just  
saying that because I think you will be surprised by how much easier  
it is in Ruby.  You will likely be able to save all your data with a  
single line of code and load it with another line.  It very painless.

3.  Ask us any questions you run into along the way.  :)

Good luck with your project, however you decide to approach it.

James Edward Gray II