Chapter 4 - things I missed the first time around

When I first read Agile Web Development with Rails (AWDWR), I skimmed over link_to. That's hard to believe now, but I can clearly recall coming to some Rails code and wrestling with link_to. Additionally, ERB was a bit of mystery, too.

I strongly encourage those new to Rails to slow down in Chapter 4 and actually do the experiments at the end of the chapter.

Even though ERB is tried-and-true, some HAML, Markdown, Redcloth coverage would be useful in a third edition, at least as a footnote. It's probably worthwhile to add a chapter in the book to the topic, rather than overwhelm the reader during the first demo application, though.

Chapters 1-3

So I have a copy of the second edition (which is the current version), and it's pretty out of date, as it uses Rails 2.2.2. When I first read the book, 2.2.2 was reasonable, but trying to do Rails 2.2.X now is actually a bit difficult: Rails 2.3.5 or 2.3.8 is probably the oldest Rails anyone coming to Rails should try to use, whereas Rails 3 is probably too new to start with.

I know the Pragmatic Programmer folks are revising the book and hope to have the Rails 3 version published by the end of 2010. Obie's Rails 3 Way is available in Rough Cuts on Safari, and should be out early this Fall.

It's probably too much to ask that the 3rd edition mentions RVM, but we can always hope. That's what I'm using to do the coding from the book, and, I'm actually using 2.3.8, not 2.2.2.

Agile Web Development with Rails

While I've used Rails for a few years now, I thought it would be interesting to go back and re-read the classic Agile Web Programming with Rails, following along with all the coding, so I've scheduled some time in Google Calendar each day to do so.