# 'Agile Web Development' book

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/agile-web-development-book/58959>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 27, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/agile-web-development-book/58959 "2006-04-27T13:18:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jpettet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7ea924/32.png) [@jpettet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jpettet)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/agile-web-development-book/58959/1 "2006-04-27T13:18:24Z")

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I just started to learn RoR because I need to create a relatively simple  
but important application due next month.

The Shopping cart app in this book is going ok but I have a question.

Is the complexity of the shopping cart example in this book  
representitive of a real world application?

Note that i am not saying if the application is production quality, I  
mean the ‘complexity’ of the applications.

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**Author:** ![jpettet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7ea924/32.png) [@jpettet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jpettet)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/agile-web-development-book/58959/2 "2006-04-27T14:12:24Z")

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Well, it depends on the scope of the application. The shopping cart is  
production quality, but does _so_ little you’d hardly want to put it  
into  
production.

I’d put it at the “very basic” level of complexity for RoR. The moment  
you  
start deviating from the built-in standards and function, and start  
having  
to write “real code” (rather than merely glueing components together)  
things  
get more complex.

But “complexity” is a relative term anyway, depending on what you want  
to do  
and at what scale. Some applications are big and time-consuming, but not  
complex, and vice versa. So I’m not really sure if that helps you, or  
why  
you want to know. It’s certainly a simplistic and easy application.

For a real world perspective, go take a look at the Typo source code -  
nicely laid out, nice balance of builtin versus new functionality, the  
right  
size you can get your head around - and you might even be aware of its  
functionality.

t.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jpettet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/7ea924/32.png) [@jpettet](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jpettet)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/agile-web-development-book/58959/3 "2006-04-27T16:41:36Z")

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I think it’s fair to say that the simplicity of the shopping application  
(Depot) is  
representative of the simplicity of using Rails. It doesn’t contain the  
hardest edge  
cases. It’s a teaching app.

Warren S.