Ruby on Rails as rapid prototyping tool
Ruby on Rails might be the perfect match as a prototyping tool. It delivers consistent productivity gains compared to any other prototyping tool. Very few lines of code makes it easy to change. Here is why we use it at work as our preferred prototyping tool.
Model-View-Controller (MVC)
Like many web frameworks, Rails uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern to organize application programming.
Ruby on Rails includes tools that make common development tasks easier “out of the box”, such as scaffolding that can automatically construct some of the models and views needed for a basic website. Also included are (WEBrick), a simple ruby web server and Rake, a build system. Together with Rails these tools provide a basic development environment.
Ruby on Rails relies on a web server to run it. Mongrel is generally preferred over WEBrick at the time of writing but it can also be run by Lighttpd, Abyss, Apache (either as a module – Passenger for example – or via CGI, FastCGI or mod_ruby), and many others. From 2008 onwards, the Passenger web server replaced Mongrel as the most used web server. Recently, the Unicorn web server has become a favorite of new deployments.
Rails is also noteworthy for its extensive use of JavaScript libraries Prototype and Script.aculo.us for Ajax. Rails initially utilized lightweight SOAP for web services; this was later replaced by RESTful web services.
HTML and XML
Since version 2.0, Ruby on Rails by default offers both HTML and XML as output formats. The latter is the facility for RESTful web services.
Ruby on Rails is intended to emphasize Convention over Configuration (CoC), and the rapid development principle of Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY).
Like many web frameworks, Rails uses the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture pattern to organize application programming.[5]
Ruby on Rails includes tools that make common development tasks easier “out of the box”, such as scaffolding that can automatically construct some of the models and views needed for a basic website.[6] Also included are (WEBrick), a simple ruby web server and Rake, a build system. Together with Rails these tools provide a basic development environment.
Ruby on Rails relies on a web server to run it. Mongrel is generally preferred over WEBrick at the time of writing but it can also be run by Lighttpd, Abyss, Apache (either as a module – Passenger for example – or via CGI, FastCGI or mod_ruby), and many others. From 2008 onwards, the Passenger web server replaced Mongrel as the most used web server. Recently, the Unicorn web server has become a favorite of new deployments.
Rails is also noteworthy for its extensive use of JavaScript libraries Prototype and Script.aculo.us for Ajax.[7] Rails initially utilized lightweight SOAP for web services; this was later replaced by RESTful web services.
Since version 2.0, Ruby on Rails by default offers both HTML and XML as output formats. The latter is the facility for RESTful web services.
It is impossible not to notice Ruby on Rails. It has had a huge effect both in and outside the Ruby community… Rails has become a standard to which even well-established tools are comparing themselves to.
