Dreaming Of A New System
3:48 PM 4/22/2009Ever since the troubles with Typo (The old content-management system I was using to blog), I've been dreaming of setting up my own system.
The main problem, as I see it, is that Ruby on Rails looks so difficult. I have read many testimonials to the contrary, so I suppose there must be a point where it starts to make sense. Like many instruction manuals, all the Rails documentation I have ever seen is... missing something. I clearly have an unexplained learning disability when it comes to computer tutorials.
As with my recent Photoshop manual encounter, every time I arrive at the relevant instructions, they either don't make any sense, or they don't explain enough.
Site Redesign
I'm planning to redesign this website. I've got some cosmetic details worked out, but there is no point in doing it unless I can come up with a new content-management system too.
My recent experiences with Facebook have clarified in my mind how this new system should function. But, I don't want everything I do to go on Facebook. If people care, they can come here to look - I don't feel comfortable pushing my updates at everybody I know. I can post a fraction of my stuff on Facebook, and give gentle reminders that I have a site people can visit if they choose.
So I'd do sort of what I do on FB: Add Photos, Links, & Writings. And, come up with my own eccentric organizing scheme. I have to design a database schema, which I know becomes a Rails application full of Ruby objects to represent Controllers, Models, & Views. Beyond that - to the practical issues setting it up on my server - I'm at a loss.
A Tutorial can be a wonderful thing. But, it can also prove useless in guiding the reader from simple contrived examples to real-world applications. So far, that's been a major obstacle for me. Rails has prepackaged scripts to build objects, but when I followed the instructions, I got long back-trace dumps (sorry, I should just say "errors") when the database wouldn't cooperate, and Rails saved every misstep I made along the way. I had to nuke the whole thing and start over - but I can't keep doing that as I get closer to building the thing. How am I supposed to progress from one step to the next?
Also, the tutorials don't mention the errors I'm getting. I want some diagnostic feedback!