What is Ruby?Before we ride on Rails, let us recapitulate a few points of Ruby, which is the base of Rails.Ruby is the successful combination of −Smalltalk's conceptual elegance,Python's ease of use and learning, andPerl's pragmatism.Ruby is −A high-level programming language.Interpreted like Perl, Python, Tcl/TK.Object-oriented like Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, Java.Why Ruby?Ruby originated in Japan and now it is gaining popularity in US and Europe as well.
The following factors contribute towards its popularity −Easy to learnOpen source (very liberal license)Rich librariesVery easy to extendTruly object-orientedLess coding with fewer bugsHelpful communityAlthough we have many reasons to use Ruby, there are a few drawbacks as well that you may have to consider before implementing Ruby −Performance Issues − Although it rivals Perl and Python, it is still an interpreted language and we cannot compare it with high-level programming languages like C or C++.Threading model − Ruby does not use native threads.
ERB allows you to put Ruby codes inside an HTML file.
ERB reads along, word for word, and then at a certain point, when it encounters a Ruby code embedded in the document, it starts executing the Ruby code.You need to know only two things to prepare an ERB document −If you want some Ruby code executed, enclose it between .If you want the result of the code execution to be printed out, as a part of the output, enclose the code between .For more indepth knowledge on Ruby, Enroll for live demo on Ruby on rails Online Training What is Rails?An extremely productive web-application framework.Written in Ruby by David Heinemeier Hansson.You could develop a web application at least ten times faster with Rails than you could with a typical Java framework.An open source Ruby framework for developing database-backed web applications.Configure your code with Database Schema.No compilation phase required.Full Stack FrameworkIncludes everything needed to create a database-driven web application, using the Model-View-Controller pattern.Being a full-stack framework means all the layers are built to work seamlessly together with less code.Requires fewer lines of code than other frameworks.Convention over ConfigurationRails shuns configuration files in favor of conventions, reflection, and dynamic runtime extensions.Your application code and your running database already contain everything that Rails needs to know!Rails StrengthsRails is packed with features that make you more productive, with many of the following features building on one other.MetaprogrammingWhere other frameworks use extensive code generation from scratch, Rail framework uses Metaprogramming techniques to write programs.
Rails also uses code generation but relies much more on Metaprogramming for the heavy lifting.Active RecordRails introduces the Active Record framework, which saves objects into the database.
The Rails version of the Active Record discovers the columns in a database schema and automatically attaches them to your domain objects using metaprogramming.Convention over configurationMost web development frameworks for .NET or Java force you to write pages of configuration code.
