Ruby before Rails: Rationale.rb

#
# Many novices, looking to get started with web programming, fall into the trap
# of learning Rails before achieving a solid grasp of the Ruby language. To
# understand Rails, one should have a basic understanding of programming
# fundamentals, especially Objects and Inheritance.
#
# Additionally, there are many Rails-specific  methods patched into the Object
# class. While this is incredibly convenient, it makes learning Ruby as
# a language somewhat obtuse.  For an example, consider the following snippet:
foo = []
foo.present?

# In Rails, this would evaluate to true. In vanilla Ruby, a NoMethodError
# exception is raised. The equivalent vanilla Ruby version:
foo = []
!foo.empty?

# While this contrived example seems simple enough, the underlying mechanics
# and implications are very important concepts to understand when using Rails
# in general, as this approach is oft-used within.