This has been my little experiment for the last few weeks. I jumped
straight
into rails after a few tutorials and have been using “Agile Web
Development
with Rails” as a reference. I picked up the Ruby syntax from examples
which
was not hard to do as I know various other languages. I’ve started 3
database driven web apps and all was going really well. Rails is fun and
productive. I was having fun. … But at the back of my mind I knew at
some
point I’d get stuck. It finally came last night when I tried to do a fun
little scientic web application that used a bayesian classifier.
So now I’m wondering how far somebody can go with Rails if they have no
prior programming experience?
So now I’m wondering how far somebody can go with Rails if they have no
prior programming experience?
Probably not very far beyond the most basic of apps. Anything beyond
this
will either prove too difficult or will result in a poorly designed and
potentially insecure mess. I wouldn’t advise anybody to get too into
Rails
(or any serious web/application development) without:
a) Getting a good grasp of Ruby to at least an intermediate level
b) A good understanding of object-oriented design principles, some of
the
more common/basic design patterns and application design theory, and
especially how Rails applies these patterns (MVC, ActiveRecord,
ViewHelper,
TemplateView, Observers)
c) A good knowledge of how web applications work, key concepts, security
and
how to lock down your app etc.
d) At least a basic understanding of how to deploy an app (though this a
skill in itself)
e) Knowledge of good common practices and how to test properly (using
unit
and functional testing)
Hope that helps.
–
Cheers,
Luke R.
www.lukreedpath.co.uk
You might want to correct the URL ^^^ in your signature. 
I’m
assuming you meant to say www.lukeredpath.co.uk?