[...]... the Ruby Interpreter .22 Testing the Ruby installation 24 Troubleshooting the Ruby installation 25 Installing Rails 26 Installing Java 27 Installing RadRails 28 Creating a RadRails shortcut on your desktop 30 Testing RadRails 31 Troubleshooting the RadRails installation 33 Configuring RadRails 33 xii Ruby on Rails For Dummies. .. what kind of an animal Ruby on Rails is and you know that you want to use Ruby on Rails, skip Chapter 1 and go straight to Chapter 2 Believe me, I won’t mind ߜ If you already have Ruby on Rails, a database, and a Ruby program editor installed on your computer, skip Chapter 2 and go to Chapter 3 ߜ If you’ve seen one of the many Ruby on Rails demos or worked through a Ruby on Rails tutorial, move quickly... Web service using Ruby on Rails 271 xv xvi Ruby on Rails For Dummies Part IV: The Part of Tens 277 Chapter 14: Ten (Times Two) Great Web Sites 279 Ten Ruby Sites 279 Documentation 279 Open source Ruby projects .280 Starting points for Ruby resources 280 Discussing Ruby 280 A weekly challenge 280 Add-ons for Ruby 281... extra piece of information — something helpful that the other books may forget to tell you Everyone makes mistakes Heaven knows that I’ve made a few in my time Anyway, when I think people are especially prone to make a mistake, I mark it with a Warning icon Question: What’s stronger than a Tip icon, but not as strong as a Warning? Answer: A Remember icon 5 6 Ruby on Rails For Dummies Occasionally I run... something in the construction industry (A strut is a horizontal brace, and a sturdy one at that.) Well, a rail is also a kind of horizontal brace And like Ruby, the word Rail begins with the letter R Thus the name Ruby on Rails In spite of the name Ruby on Rails, you don’t add Ruby on top of Rails Rather, the Rails framework is an add -on to the Ruby programming language 17 ... com/RubyOnRails and www .dummies. com/go/RonR1e Part I Nuts and Bolts W In this part hat’s Ruby on Rails all about? And how do you install Ruby on Rails? And after installing it, how do you get started doing something with it? And what’s really going on at Area 51 in Roswell, New Mexico? This first part of the book answers the basic questions about Ruby on Rails But “basic” doesn’t mean “lame.” For example,... instructions tailored to your system or visit one of this book’s Web sites for helpful hints The URLs are www.burdbrain.com/RubyOnRails and www .dummies. com/go/RonR1e 3 4 Ruby on Rails For Dummies ߜ I assume that you’ve written some computer programs I’ve tried to make the book interesting for experienced programmers, yet accessible to people with only a modest amount of programming experience I don’t assume... balance And so on Since the late 1980s, most commonly used programming languages have been object oriented So I can’t claim that Ruby is special this way But Ruby s object-oriented style is more free-form than its equivalent in other languages Again, for more details on object-oriented programming in Ruby, see Chapter 6 Why Rails? Rails is an add -on to the Ruby programming language This add -on contains a... Layout 308 Creating Additional Web Pages 310 Modifying the Meanings of URLs 311 Changing the Server Environment .312 Index 315 xvii xviii Ruby on Rails For Dummies Introduction “R uby on Rails? What’s that?” asks my uncle “You write about this stuff for dummies? You mean those black and yellow books that everyone buys?” “Yes, like the one I’m quoting you in,” I say... Testing .290 Built-In Reflection .291 Chapter 16: Ten Pivotal Ruby on Rails Concepts 293 Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) 293 Convention over Configuration 294 Model/View/Controller (MVC) 294 Agile Development .294 Table of Contents Dynamic Discovery of a Database’s Characteristics .295 Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) 295 Using . 290 Built-In Reflection 291 Chapter 16: Ten Pivotal Ruby on Rails Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293 Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) 293 Convention over Configuration 294 Model/View/Controller (MVC). .279 Ten Ruby Sites 279 Documentation 279 Open source Ruby projects 280 Starting points for Ruby resources 280 Discussing Ruby 280 A weekly challenge 280 Add-ons for Ruby 281 Meet people 281 Write Ruby. y0 w0 h0" alt="" Ruby on Rails ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_081204 ffirs.qxp 11/30/06 11:08 PM Page i 01_081204 ffirs.qxp 11/30/06 11:08 PM Page ii by Barry Burd Ruby on Rails ™ FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_081204