Ruby on Rails...then and now

I was thinking about my impression of Ruby on Rails now that I've been working with it for ~12 weeks. I had to learn a language that was very different from what I'm used to (Java, C, and C++), which was a little intimidating. I had picked Demigod partly because of the idea itself but also because of the opportunity to learn something more than just Java. I could have gone with a project that had more familiar tools, but I decided to try out something different and I'm glad I did. As frustrating as it was initially trying to remember how models, views, and controllers fit together (not to mention the seventh circle of hell that is setting up Ruby) and where a certain file is located in the maze of folders that makes up a Rails project, I felt I was finally (around week 4 or 5) able to really start making sense of it all.

As someone who is used to working in Java (school and work) with some C and Scheme/Haskell classes thrown in for good measure, I don't have much opportunity to work in other languages unless they are my own personal projects. I've taught myself the basics of Javascript, HTML, and CSS through some of my own projects, but it is never quite the same as having to work on a relatively large project in an unfamiliar language. I think it is a little like learning an actual language: you can take a lot of classes and practice as much as you like, but nothing is better for learning that going to the actual country and immersing yourself in the language. Having a large project is somewhat like that. You have to immerse yourself in the language so you can understand as much as possible as quickly as possible, otherwise there is no way that you can be a functioning member of the team. Though learning RoR could be quite a challenge at times, I think it worked well for our project and we were able to implement all the necessary functionality, create a good layout and design, and deliver a final project that met our requirements. For me, that indicates that the choice of language was a good one. If your language of choice does what you need in a relatively simple and efficient manner, then I say it was the right language for the job. As with any language, there are unique issues and problems that you have to overcome, but, overall, RoR worked for our project.