> Rails is to Ruby what ARP and Cairngorm are to Actionscript. You can't just say "Framework is to Language as Framework is to Language". The Rails approach is different and, in many people's opinions, better. There's a reason there is more buzz surrounding Ruby on Rails than frameworks like Cake, ARP and Cairngorm. It's also interesting to note that Rails was written by one person, David Heinemeier Hansson, not a committee of people.
> I thought Rails also makes it easy to implement UI elements > or am I wrong? Well, it depends on what you mean by UI elements. Rails will create scaffolding, which consist of the model, controller and a functional view (HTML pages) for each class. It's extremely pragmatic in that it will write the model for you based on what the underlying database structure is, creating variables for every column in the corresponding table in the database. It helps you create forms effortlessly (it even writes them in the view when you scaffold) and there is powerful AJAX scaffolding, as well. And when you're ready to deploy, you use a gem called Capistrano and it will upload and configure everything on your server when you type the following on the command line: rake deploy Pretty amazing, right? But wait! Did you just deploy a nasty bug accidentally? Never fear, just type: rake rollback How you like them apples? :) ARP and Cairngorm aren't in the same ballpark as Rails because it's a totally different sport. A lot of that has to do with the fact that Rails lives on a server and has direct CRUD access to a database. But there is more to Rails than that. UnitTesting is baked right in, along with incremental migration, something most Flash developers don't even know about because they don't "have to", and a slew of other features. IMO, if you really want to improve your coding techniques, I highly suggest you pick up Agile Web Development with Rails and go through it. Even if you don't end up doing a lot of Rails work, you'll get to see a "real" programming language (you'll be amazed at all the extra date, array and string methods in ruby and rails) and you might be able to apply some of the brilliance found there to your Flash development approach. BLITZ | Steven Sacks - 310-551-0200 x209 _______________________________________________ [email protected] To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
