I’ve made the leap and I’m starting to use Rails 2.x for all my apps now. Overall it was a pretty smooth transition over to 2.x. One thing I noticed immediately after running the scaffold generator, ./script/generate scaffold Something, was that the layout template was named something.html.erb. What’s this new .erb extension I thought to myself. I did a little searching and found Ryan’s Scraps where he explains the reason for the change. Its all about semantics. Notice the post date was back almost a year ago.
It makes me want to reflect about Rails in general. Am I really a year behind here? I’ve been developing in Rails for a few years now and love it for all the right reasons. One of the most important facets the framework offers is its constant adaptation to better ideas. The Rails project seems to be one of the most fluid projects I’ve ever seen in terms of embracing new and better techniques for doing things. I think that simple fact is what gives it an edge.
In this industry, a developer has to constantly stay ahead of the curve and always be thinking of how to do things better. I end up getting into the trenches and working on a project for a while but by the time I come up for air I’m doing things the old way already. Here I am upgrading my skills to Rails 2.x and I’m already feeling like I’m old school. Rails apps move quickly and if you don’t pay attention you’ll just as quickly get behind. Other frameworks seem like they’re more consistent over time and as a programmer there’s often little to learn on new releases. Rails is different. It forces you to reconsider what you already know. Take routes for instance. Now everyone is using RESTful routes. You learn the old way and they reinvent it under your noes. Its a beautiful dynamic that forces me as a developer to stay on my toes and to constantly improve my own skill set.
One problem that I face, however, is the complexity of managing multiple project across multiple Rails versions. Rails luckily allows me to freeze the framework into a project so my problem isn’t in incompatibilities. Its in the complexity that arises from having 20 or so projects all running different Rails versions. Some of my projects run older versions of Rails 1.x. Some run the newest 1.x version and even newer projects are now running 2.x. Sure you can say that I should upgrade all those projects but that works in theory. In practice, however, resources are limited and some projects have a priority over others. Time is limited so its usually spent where its needed most. Smaller projects fall through the cracks and sooner or later they seem like old legacy apps even though they’re only maybe a year old. I suppose its just another part of this industry: dealing with legacy systems. Not every legacy system can be upgraded to the latest and greatest. Of course the purist programmers out there want to keep everything current and doing every single best practice you can consider best. Practicality reins supreme though and resources will always remain limited. The best any developer can do is to constantly try to reinvent themselves and never close the door to new ideas. Once you become comfortable in what you know is when you’re going to miss the next big idea.
