Conceptualizing Rails after Sinatra

A talk I gave at the NYC on Rails meetup at the Flatiron School one week into Rails

Transcript

1. CONCEPTUALIZING
   RAILS AFTER SINATRA
   My first week on Rails
   

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2. Rails vs. Sinatra
   •  “Rails is a framework focused on writing model driven web
   applications”
   •  “Sinatra is a library for dealing with HTTP from the server side”
   -Konstantin Haase, maintainer of Sinatra
   

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3. Sinatra as a Tool for Beginners
   •  Introduction to Rack/Middleware
   •  Opens up the world of Model-View-Controller (MVC)
   •  Write out RESTful routes
   •  Great error messages
   •  Beginning Ruby developers can begin to interact with their
   code on a new level
   

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4. How Sinatra Works
   •  One controller, many models, many views,
   •  Tightly linked MVC
   •  Controller-driven (for a beginner)
   •  Integrated with Active Record
   

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5. CHALLENGES IN CONCEPTUALIZING
   RAILS MVC RELATIONSHIPS
   

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6. Resources
   “A resource is the term used for a
   collection of similar objects” – Rails Guides
   

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7. Conceptualizing Rails After Sinatra
   •  Think in terms of dynamically-composed resources
   •  Object-oriented thinking on every level
   •  Model-driven
   

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8. RAILS AND SINATRA SOLVE DIFFERENT
   PROBLEMS
   

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9. Structural Differences
   •  Sinatra is not “pre” rails, but rather a different kind of thing
   •  Model-driven applications (Rails)
   •  Controller-driven applications (Sinatra)
   •  Sinatra deals with server-side HTTP requests
   

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10. Mix + Match
    •  Padrino (Ruby framework built on Sinatra)
    •  Yehuda Katz built Sinatra in Rails (testing whether Rails is
    a good toolkit for building new frameworks)
    •  Complementary frameworks: using Sinatra in Rails as
    tenant structures to modularize your app
    

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11. Convention vs Configuration
    “The biggest disadvantage with Sinatra not solving the
    issue for you is, well, Sinatra not solving the issue for you.
    You actually have to deal with that issue. You might end up
    wasting too much time dealing with it.”
    -Konstantin Haase
    “The default Rails app provides a lot that I need which
    requires extra setup in Sinatra. This can lead to faster
    development in Rails.”
    -Ryan Bates, Railscasts
    

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12. Framework vs Library
    •  “Inversion of Control is a key part of what makes a
    framework different to a library.”
    •  “A library is essentially a set of functions that you can call”
    •  “A framework embodies some abstract design, with more
    behavior built in. In order to use it you need to insert your
    behavior into various places in the framework either by
    subclassing or by plugging in your own classes”
    -Martin Fowler
    

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13. Takeaways
    •  Important to recognize the ways you are conceptualizing a
    new concept and what drives that
    •  When in doubt, return to objects
    •  Using the right tool for the right problem
    •  Tech talks for beginners = a great way to better understand
    what you’re confused about + open source the learning
    process
    

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