Few questions about Rails and Javascript + Jquery
This is actually my first post on SO, and I'm somewhat new to back-end programming (learning Ruby currently, but I'm familiar with front end stuff) so please bare with me if my questions seem quite noobish. I have a great interest in learning/getting a grip on Ruby and Rails, and so I figured this would be a great place to ask questions when I'm stumped.

While learning Ruby, I've been coming up with few questions which I need clarified. I've looked up these questions on Google but problem is I just need someone to explain the answers to me in a straightforward, laymen fashion (with everyday examples included). I mostly end up reading series of text on the internet that just talk about theories. I'm not disregarding the need to learn those theories as I realize I'll one day perhaps need to learn em to get a better grip on the subject, but for now, I just wanna start small, and build my way up to more complicated things.

So, here they are:

1) So essentially what are Databases? People say it stores data (duh) but what sorts of data are we speaking of? Like, if I for example were to build Facebook for the first time, what sort of information would my databases store? User log-in info and such?

2) Speaking of databases, what are the "best" ones to use? I know it really is a matter of preference, but I'm mostly concerned with super speed, efficiency,  reliability, and simplicity of use. What is one you would personally recommend? 

3) Heroku is a rails-friendly server that allows you to deploy rails app without having to worry about server administration monkey work -- right?

4) What are the "best" ways to make sure your rails app is robust, blazing fast, and secured? Some devs been advising me about avoiding Javascript/JQ, because those two are (Generally) what slows down site loads. What do you think?

Super Thanks to everyone who shows me the light by answering my questions. I'll have more in the future I'm sure :)

-Faisal Feroze




Few questions about Rails and Javascript + Jquery
===

This is actually my first post on SO, and I'm somewhat new to back-end programming (learning Ruby currently, but I'm familiar with front end stuff) so please bare with me if my questions seem quite noobish. I have a great interest in learning/getting a grip on Ruby and Rails, and so I figured this would be a great place to ask questions when I'm stumped.

While learning Ruby, I've been coming up with few questions which I need clarified. I've looked up these questions on Google but problem is I just need someone to explain the answers to me in a straightforward, laymen fashion (with everyday examples included). I mostly end up reading series of text on the internet that just talk about theories. I'm not disregarding the need to learn those theories as I realize I'll one day perhaps need to learn em to get a better grip on the subject, but for now, I just wanna start small, and build my way up to more complicated things.

So, here they are:

1) So essentially what are Databases? People say it stores data (duh) but what sorts of data are we speaking of? Like, if I for example were to build Facebook for the first time, what sort of information would my databases store? User log-in info and such?

2) Speaking of databases, what are the "best" ones to use? I know it really is a matter of preference, but I'm mostly concerned with super speed, efficiency,  reliability, and simplicity of use. What is one you would personally recommend? 

3) Heroku is a rails-friendly server that allows you to deploy rails app without having to worry about server administration monkey work -- right?

4) What are the "best" ways to make sure your rails app is robust, blazing fast, and secured? Some devs been advising me about avoiding Javascript/JQ, because those two are (Generally) what slows down site loads. What do you think?

Super Thanks to everyone who shows me the light by answering my questions. I'll have more in the future I'm sure :)

-Faisal Feroze



