Beginning Ruby on Rails

If you’re used to huge, overly complex web applications, you’re in for a treat—both Ruby and Rails can do a lot of the code writing for you, creating skeleton applications that you can modify easily. And if you’re new to web programming, you’re also in for a treat because you’re getting started the right way. Ruby is the programming language you’re going to be using, and Rails is the web application framework that will put everything online. This and the next couple of chapters get you up to speed in Ruby, building the foundation you need to start putting Ruby on Rails. If you already know Ruby, you can skip this material and get directly to the online stuff. But why just talk about it? Why not start by seeing Ruby in action? Heck, why not see Ruby on Rails in action, taking a look at just how simple it is to build a sample web application? That will give you something to keep in mind as you work through Ruby in these first few chapters. The first step, of course, is to install Ruby and Rails.