Agreed, nice post there... The only thing i'd add to that, is that as a Rails beginner-becoming-intermediate, I actually really like the fact that you can get something up relatively quickly and then start hacking away at it to create an app... I'd also add that unless you really understand what's happening in terms of REST, etc. then it's near impossible to effectively build a respectable app... I've had a few moments of frustration/disappointment since I've created my first scaffold, but as long as you stay the course, and have some programming knowledge, it all makes perfect sense eventually...
On Nov 30, 8:02 pm, "David A. Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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-resourcehttp://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 > Seehttp://www.rubypal.comfor 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
