Rails has Two Default Stacks
Using Steve's definitions from the article, the tutorial I usually point people to is Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial <a href="http://ruby.railstutorial.org/" rel="nofollow">http://ruby.railstutorial.org/</a> which uses the "Prime" stack. I believe I read somewhere that Michael was going to come out with a "37 signals" stack version as well.<p>One message I'd like people to understand when they're starting out with Rails is that it really is confusing, and that being confused and maybe even feeling stupid is normal! I remember hearing people talk about how easy developing Rails applications was back in 2006, but what I didn't know was it was easy relative to other web frameworks at the time. It's still hard.<p>By analogy, if you're an intermediate skiier and you visit a well-groomed mountain with great, powdery snow you could say "this mountain is easy to ski on". But if you're just learning to ski, and you follow everyone else up the lift to the top of a blue run, it's a terrifying experience trying to get down the slope without breaking your neck. To add insult to injury, it's discouraging to see everyone else gliding down the slope while you're shimmying down on your butt because when you try to stand you lose control, go way too fast, then crash. New skiiers need bunny hills, then green runs, then blue runs.<p>I still don't think there's an established "bunny hill" and "green run" track for learning Rails. Sure would like to help someone create one.