Ruby on Rails is an open-source framework for coding with an open-source programming language called Ruby. Also known as RoR, Ruby on Rails is considered a model-view-controller framework, or MVC framework. Not sure what any of that means? Here’s a quick breakdown.
What is Ruby?
Ruby is a pretty easy-to-use programming language. It’s dynamic and relatively easy to read and write. Ruby’s syntax was inspired by the high-level programming language Perl. However, its features are more often compared to the Smalltalk programming language.
The History of Ruby on Rails
David Heinemeier Hansson created it in 2003 and received resounding critical acclaim. Today, over 16,000 people have contributed to Ruby on Rails. The Ruby on Rails website, http://rubyonrails.org, contains an active “ecosystem.” This ecosystem has a full page of further resources for successfully using Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails also maintains an active bug reporting and patch download page for any problems that arise. There’s also an official yearly Rails conference called RailsConf, but many other unofficial international Rails conferences exist.
Using a Model-View-Controller (MVC) Framework
MVC framework is aptly named because it separates work into three main parts: the model, the view, and the controller. The controller will take care of all interaction with the web server. The model processes all interaction with the database. The view is named because it’s what will be “viewed” in the browser since it generates the HTML coding. The end view result is generally a combination of HTML and Ruby. By dividing complicated processes into three departments, MVC frameworking makes things easier to understand and design. Ruby on Rails takes these three separate departments and streamlines them into one package. Ruby on Rails aims to hide complicated and unnecessary programming so programmers can focus primarily on the main parts of their web application design.