As a beginner who started trying to learn rails from 1.2-2.0 I just wanted to say that Rails was never simple with all its magic and metaprogramming.
"Blog in 15 minutes" is about being productive.
Defaults, conventions and DSL's are for less code only. You still have to know the rules.
(Both DSL and what's underneath it.)
Javascript is not simple - so we have CoffeeScript.
HTML isn't - there's HAML. (1 line of code to add it to Rails 3.1)
Web applications are now more complex - client logic finally moved to /app folder.)
We can still enable old routing (uncommenting one line).
But you have to learn bundler for dependency management, know application.rb configuration options, etc.
So I don't get what 'simple' about that technology stack. It's DRY and rather flexible, but not simple.
Defaults, conventions and DSL's are for less code only. You still have to know the rules. (Both DSL and what's underneath it.)
Javascript is not simple - so we have CoffeeScript. HTML isn't - there's HAML. (1 line of code to add it to Rails 3.1) Web applications are now more complex - client logic finally moved to /app folder.) We can still enable old routing (uncommenting one line).
But you have to learn bundler for dependency management, know application.rb configuration options, etc.
So I don't get what 'simple' about that technology stack. It's DRY and rather flexible, but not simple.