Hi -- On Tue, 25 Nov 2008, Ralph Wood wrote:
> > For every tutorial that uses scaffolding, there's an article that says > you shouldn't use it in real websites. Supposedly it just serves to > "sketch things out quickly", "test database connectivity" and other > stuff. Some say you're not even supposed to use it and then edit it > later. I don't get why. > > What is it about scaffolding that makes it virtually useless? It > generates some code; surely I could just expand on it or "fix" what's > wrong with it later, right? Apparently not. How is it different from me > making my own CRUD base files and copypasting it into every project? > > I just don't get it. Here are a few problems I've seen, and continue to see, with the scaffolding. It leads people to think that Rails is going to be dead easy, and then they get frustrated or disappointed when it turns out that developing a Rails app is real development and real programming. Although it pertains usually to the beginning stages of an application, it does not play well with the beginning stages of learning Rails. It presents way, way too much code to be useful to beginners. The controller files can be a useful "cheat-sheet" for REST idioms, but only once the basic techniques and principles are understood. As you point out, the scaffolding makes you tweak things and remove wrong things, instead of developing what you actually need. It turns development into sculpture (remove everything that isn't your application!), and introduces anxieties about whether you're doing something wrong because you're changing something fundamental about the scaffold code, etc. It presents a very rigid and specific context for the idea of a "resource" (in the REST sense), which then impedes people from gaining a broader understanding of what a resource can be. For more on this problem, see: http://dablog.rubypal.com/2008/3/23/splitting-hairs-over-resource http://dablog.rubypal.com/2008/4/24/splitting-hairs-over-resource-part-2 I agree with the point that others have made that if you know exactly what the scaffolding provides, and you've got a situation where that's exactly what you need, there's no harm in using it. If those particular boilerplate files happen to coincide with what you want, that's great. Otherwise, I'd avoid it. There's no reason to give it first refusal of your development space, just because it's there. David -- Rails training from David A. Black and Ruby Power and Light: INTRO TO RAILS (Jan 12-15), Fort Lauderdale, FL See http://www.rubypal.com for details Coming in 2009: The Well-Grounded Rubyist (http://manning.com/black2) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
