As a new Rails developer, is it better to jump in the deep end with a large project or start small? [closed]

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So I have a project - which I guess can be considered a relatively 'large-ish' project, that I want to build.

However, I am completely new to Rails. I am intimately familiar with UX &a开发者_JAVA技巧mp; front-end development, but dealing with the back-end is new to me. I really want to learn though, and I remember DHH famously saying that the best way to learn is just to do it.

However, I was recently speaking to an experienced Rails developer and he said it might be better to build smaller projects - so I can learn in shorter durations and not get discouraged. Then I spoke to another experienced Rails developer and he said that there is something to be said about jumping in the deep end.

So what do you guys think? What are the pros and cons of both?

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Jumping in at the deep end is fine if you know enough to plan your project carefully. If you don't know anything about MVC architecture, you will probably have a really hard time planning out the database and program elements you need to get from point A to Z.

Properly planned, you can do a project by creating successive (fully functional) iterations with each one a step toward completely fulfilling your requirements. For example, with a blog you could first build a system for entering posts into your DB, then build a display function, then build tagging, then build commenting, etc.

If you don't know anything about Rails and don't know MVC, then at least a couple of tutorial level projects will be real helpful for getting you familiar with the environment and the architecture concept.

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Honestly it's a different answer for everyone. Which do you think would benefit you most? If you think you would be too overwhelmed by a large project then start small and continue when you feel comfortable.

What would I do? I'd jump straight in. No matter which you choose to do your larger project is likely to contain more tasks, issues, and ultimately a lot of troubleshooting. That's a good thing, though.

The nice thing about using Rails is that it's fairly easy to build all of your models and database elements with all of its generators. Then you can simply copy any view or controller logic you've already implemented.

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Some time ago, a smart developer told me to avoid "analysis paralysis" and to start designing my solution as soon as I could. In my experience I've learned that every large project could be divided in smaller ones. Rails, and all the frameworks built like it, are good on both concept: - it helps you in designing a solution by dividing Data, Business Logic and Presentation. - it helps you in passing from idea to code - it has some convention that could shorten your learning curve - it's good for DRY coding

So since you already have a project go with it. If you can find another crazy developer that is willing to help you, you'll discover that rails is good also for teams and at the same time you'll learn how nice is to work together, share ideas and discuss.

So... Time to go, type at your prompt:

rails new my-largish-cool-project