Ruby on Rails. WTF?

[drm604]

My new job requires that I learn something called Ruby on Rails. I figured, WTH, I've spent my career learning new languages and new technologies, this is just one more.

:( I'm starting to fear that I was wrong. I can't make any sense out of how the pieces go together. It has views, models, controllers, helpers, etc. that all seem to talk to each other but it isn't obvious in the code how they do so. It plays fast and loose with names, pluralizing, un-pluralizing, adding or removing underscores, calling method names that seem to bear a resemblance to methods elsewhere in the code but with added words, etc. It's nearly impossible for me to trace through the code to find out where to make the changes I want to make.

It's like I'm programming on Bizzaro World or something. This is supposed to be an improvement? This is supposed to make things better?

Am I the only one who feels this way? HTF am I supposed to work with this stuff? It breaks everything I've ever learned about programming. Who thought this was a good idea? :crazy:

[DaveJ]

1. Sorry to hear that, wish I could help

I never touched Ruby and avoid Linux altogether. I'm so glad I discovered .Net programming. It's so easy and fun to use, I can create advanced web apps with such speed and ease.

Hope you figure it out. I know this site does not have the best reviews, but I like experts-exchange since I can ask beginner questions without people saying things like Google is you friend. Totally worth the $99/yr my company spends on it.

[drm604]

2. Ruby

I like Linux and I could work with Ruby. It's just another language, albeit with some untypical language constructs. I will say that I don't understand the reason for it. What was wrong with PHP? I sometimes think people invent new open source languages just to show off to each other, then people adapt them simply because they're "cutting edge".

Ruby by itself isn't really the problem. You can write Ruby code by itself. The problem occurs for me when Ruby is combined with the Rails framework - so-called "Ruby on Rails". I understand the concept of an MVC framework but when I sit down and try to work with existing RoR code I'm stymied. The framework contains so much of the logic and it's invisible and inaccessible and you end up feeling like you're trying to hack your way around it.

[Lowell]

3. RoR is like "new math"

I work with Linux all the time. And I build most of my pages in php. But Ruby on Rails has stymied me also. I gave up.

[drm604]

4. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one.

Unfortunately my paid position is eventually going to depend on my not giving up. Fortunately, the IT part of my duties is currently keeping me busy enough that I have a legitimate reason for not proceeding with the RoR work, but eventually I will need to be able to work with it. :( :scared: