Learning Rails

Who This Book Is Not For

We don’t really want to cut anyone out of the possibility of reading this book, but there are a lot of people who aren’t likely to enjoy it. Model-View-Controller purists will probably grind their teeth through the first few chapters, and people who insist that data structures are at the heart of a good application are going to have to wait an even longer time to see their hopes realized. If you consider HTML just a nuisance that programmers have to put up with, odds are good that this book isn’t for you. Most of the other Ruby on Rails books, though, are written for people who want to start from the model!

Also, people who are convinced that Ruby and Rails are the one true way may have some problems with this book, which spends a fair amount of time warning readers about potential problems and confusions they need to avoid. Yes, once you’ve worked with Ruby and Rails for a while, their elegance is obvious. However, reaching that level of comfort and familiarity is often a difficult road. This book attempts to ease as many of those challenges as possible by describing them clearly.