Stop developing Rails !!!

My programming experience is about 1 year of PHP, self-taught using only web resources, and Atari BASIC back when the language was a little cartridge you plugged into the computer. I'm about as close to a blank slate as you can get, here, and I had little trouble picking up Ruby/Rails.

When I decided to try Rails (saw the video, like everyone else) I got online and started looking around. The old 'pickaxe' book is free, taught me quite a bit of Ruby. Then there was the 'Rolling with RoR' and '4 days' tutorials. Both Ruby and Rails API are online, and though they aren't optimum (all I have to compare them to is php.net, which rocked) the info is there. I started writing simple apps, case-studies that explored different ideas. I played around in console and breakpointer. I read hundreds of blog posts.

When I needed more info and I had exhausted the web resources I could find, I joined the IRC channel and this mailing list, both of which are archived and searchable. Asking informed questions on IRC got me polite and helpful responses that led me to more knowledge. Reading through source code of existing apps taught me a lot, and when I saw things that weren't documented elsewhere a trip to the IRC channel cleared it right up.

After 2 months I felt comfortable enough to convert my PHP sites to Rails. This took a couple of weeks, and gave me the confidence to try bigger things. I showed a couple of people what I had been working on, and got some contract work. Only after I had received the up-front money for the contract did I buy the Agile 2 beta PDF and Rails Recipes.

So what I want to know is this: given my first-hand experience of the dismal state of Rails documentation, how is it that I am successfully doing contract work while other people in this thread are ranting about how hard it is to learn Rails? There are some bitter people venting in this thread, and I'm finding it hard to see their side of the situation. It looks to me like some people want their new and different language to be as well presented as the old and dusty languages they know, and are (irrationally) upset that this isn't the case.

If you're that unhappy, you basically have 3 options:

  change the system ("be the change you want to see in the world"), or   change yourself (the observer is part of the equation, too), or   leave.

- foobario

Anyone find it funny that “Bob” hasn’t responded again after 70 posts?

The only problem with Rails documentation I’ve had is when I’ve been told of some obscure or advanced feature but can’t remember exactly what it was, but that’s to be expected with most libraries.

Jason

ok maybe we spend too much time discussing in mailings lists and not enough time actually coding or setting up helpful ressources

Actually, we all new that already. Now, if Rails was a closed source framework, how much would you be willing to pay for it?

Michael