This post is very old and likely contains information that is no longer accurate and links which no longer work. Proceed with caution.
So it’s been quite some time since I posted anything, mainly because I’ve been rather busy on a project at work. It’s a fairly complex system that we used Ruby on Rails for. I had never used Rails before (or Ruby for that matter!) but it was easy to pick up (I suppose having coded in a dozen languages or so at one time or another makes picking up new ones easier…) Rails really excels at taking care of the grunt work (db access/mapping especially) and lets you focus on what you’re trying to accomplish.
I did all of my coding using Eclipse, with Ruby Develpment Tools, Subclipse (for Subversion access), and most importantly the RadRails plugin. For the most part is was a good experience. There were a few times when renaming a file or performing miscellaneous actions that Eclipse locked up on me (at home and at work) but restarting Eclipse worked ok. The only feature missing that would have been nice is Rails debugging. It’s in the works in RadRails, but it’s a ways off.
I found the book Agile Web Development with Rails invaluable during the entire process. (Programming Ruby is another fine choice, too!)
In the years since I started using Rails I have grown to dislike it severely. They are constantly deprecating useful features and changing things seemingly for no logical reason. Maintaining it is a chore, even trying to keep up with security updates is painful. It felt like the constant changes were designed to keep Rails consultants continuously employed instead of keeping them sane. Though I still occasionally have to touch a couple Rails projects, thankfully the most complex ones have been rendered obsolete. At this point I would not create anything new using Rails if I had a choice.