Rails 3 in Action

Appendix A. Why Rails?

A common question in the Ruby on Rails community from newcomers is, “Why Ruby?” or “Why Rails?” In this appendix, this question will be answered with a couple of key points about why people should be using Ruby on Rails over other frameworks, covering such things as the culture and community standards.

Ruby is an exceptionally powerful language that can be used for short scripts up to full-featured web applications, such as those built with Ruby on Rails. Its clean syntax and its focus on making programmers happy are two of the many major points that have generated a large community of people who use it. There are hobbyists who use it just for the sake of it right up to hardcore people who swear by it. However, Ruby (and ...