Rails 2.1 removed the original scaffold generator and replaced it with a new RESTful scaffold generator.

Bummer.

I’m not talking about the dynamic scaffolding that comes from putting “scaffold :model” in a controller. That “dynamic scaffolding” was removed in Rails 2.0 and few of us miss it. I’m talking about when you type “ruby script/generate scaffold Model” from the command line and get generated model, controller and view files as a result.

While I understand that Rails is “opinionated software” and that they want to encourage everyone to get on the REST bandwagon, I think completely removing the old scaffold generator was a mistake for one simple reason:

It unnecessarily raises a barrier to entry for beginners.

When beginners first start on Rails there is a lot to digest. Installation issues, Ruby language, MVC architecture, ActiveRecord, Rails syntax, routes, migrations and deployment—just to name a few. In my opinion, asking someone eager to learn Rails—someone who may have a background in PHP but who still doesn’t understand code blocks or the basic Rails .find syntax—to also use REST from the start is only going to frustrate them and slow the growth of Rails adoption. They need to walk before they can run. We have added best practices for advanced users at the expense of the newbies.

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A student sent me email to ask: “In a general sense, when writing code, is there a sequence of steps or a pattern to the logic when writing the code?”

It’s a good question. Experienced computer programmers have learned these steps—either through intuition or experience—but beginning programmers are often mystified. Once you learn the language syntax, how exactly do you use it to approach a programming problem? Especially if you want to try to use good programming techniques and to solve the problem in a smart and efficient way.

The answer to the question “Are there steps to writing code?” is “Yes”. After the jump, I’ll give three ways to develop the logic necessary to write good code.

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