Agile Web Development with Rails 4

I’m naturally a Django developer and have been for a few years now.  In that time I’d like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at both Python and Django.  During the time I’ve worked with Django I have helped to build apps ranging from personal health records to sites designed to connect developers with designers.  Through this time I’ve always been curious how other web frameworks approach the same problem.  With that in mind I’ve begun to take a look at Rails (the arch nemesis, some might say, to Django).

To help me out with learning Rails, and Ruby for that matter, I plan to work through the book I’ve linked here over the next month.  (I’ve done a little chef, but that’s more DSL than anything).  I figure a month should be enough time to play around with Rails and Ruby to get an idea of what I think about it and how I can use some of its paradigms to help me out with my Django development.  

Already I have some issues, and funnily enough those are also my likes about Rails.  I’ve really only gotten past the”Instant Gratification Chapter”, but it’s enough to wet my appetite.  One huge win that Rails is showing me is a proper MVC file setup.  I actually had a misunderstanding of the MVC pattern when I first started web development due to how Django names it’s files, and lays out its projects.   However, that file layout is also a double edged sword.  I like how simple the file structure is in a Django app.  I’m used to the Zen of Python: “Flat is better than nested”.  But in real web development, I find nested really does help when it comes to organizing large projects.  

I’m really not too far along so I don’t have much to say, but I am excited to try out a new framework and language and plan to share some of the things I find out from Rails.