Rails is the Web application framework written in Ruby language. David Heinemeier Hansson created Rails, and it is also known as Ruby on Rails. The purpose of creating Rails was to make application development easy and fun. Rails is back-end of the Web application while the browser is the front-end.
The Rails framework is developer friendly. It makes the application development easier in many ways. It allows the developers make assumptions and inspires them to think of doing things in a better way. The Rails framework has two guiding principles:
- Don’t Repeat yourself : Do not Repeat Yourself (DRY) principle in a programming language is a developer advantage. In other programming languages, you will see repetition of code, which makes debugging complicated and cumbersome. The DRY principle is against duplication or repetition of code. It helps developers to create simple, manageable, and higher quality applications, which are easy to upgrade.
- Convention over Configuration: Ruby on Rails framework doesn’t require the developer to declare small things such as variable types. Instead, the framework supports strong naming conventions. The first letter of the variable determines its intended use. Since Rails is written in Ruby, the framework follows the same naming conventions, which helps to decrease the code.
The idea behind the development and popularity of Rails is its disadvantages presented by popular Web development languages. The goal of Rails is to automate a majority of the development tasks and allow developers to focus primarily on solving business problems. The creator and development community of Ruby on Rails wanted to develop a framework that gives better-structured code. This framework essentially helps in collaborative application development to complete larger projects in a faster way. Ruby on Rails is a cleaner and simpler programming language on a framework to learn and develop Web applications. Unlike other languages, you do not have to type semi-colons at the end of the line or parentheses around parameters. This leads to a readable code, and you will feel as if you are reading English declarations telling you what you want to do.
Developers prefer Ruby on Rails for their application development for several reasons. Some of them are:
- Increase in productivity: Increase in productivity is the main reason for big portals opting for Rails applications. Rails is a full stack framework, which means it includes back-end and front-end design. This characteristic facilitates collaboration. It is possible to use Ruby on Rails for development of back-end and front-end of Web application simultaneously. Moreover, it is not necessary for developers to understand both sides.
The Rails framework features clear definition for the interfaces, back- end and front-end. Besides, Rails is a full stack framework that has everything required for application development and handles integration by itself.
Need for improvements and overcoming difficulties in current Web technologies is what guides the development of a new framework or programming languages. Rails is an extended form of Ruby, which is a simple yet powerful programming language. The creator and development of RoR wanted to develop a powerful framework for development of Web applications. The goals was to give developers more freedom for creativity and reduce the menial and complications of code.
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