Actually, in contrast to .NET, Ruby/Rails does enable the power programmer to do exactly what he/she wants. It's a framework, and like any other it abstracts away the grunt work - moving data to/from the database and between forms and the processing of data submitted in those forms. However, it's all built on top of Ruby and if you know Ruby you can easily dip below the abstraction layer and do everything exactly the way you want to. Want to write your own SQL selects/inserts/updates/deletes, want to painstakingly scribble out the code for every form tag in your pages - have at it, neither Ruby nor Rails gets in the way of doing this. But you don't have to know Ruby like a robed master to use Rails effectively. When I can write a couple lines like this:
@categories = Category.find(:all)
<%= select('recipe','category',@categories) %>
...and end up with a SELECT drop-down that is appropriately named, id'd and styled listing all the categories in my categories table, that then feeds back to my database without a hitch and includes behind-the-scenes work to cleanse form data, and does it all FAST, I'm more than sold on the productivity gains to be had.
Obviously, I'm a Rails fanatic, but let it be known I've been into it for the short period of 6 weeks. I've been doing PHP for about 6 years, and I HONESTLY think I manage to do equivalent design work in Rails in about 25% of the time it would take me in PHP.
The first couple chapters of this book (http://pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.html) is a great introduction to Rails providing an overview and insight into why it's so hot with a bunch of people right now, complete with installation instructions to get the environment up and running on your local machine (windows/max/linux) and a tutorial taking you through development of a real-world application and demonstrating how the framework really shines. I recommend it highly for anyone interested in delving more deeply into Rails.
c.
