# Developing without migration? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 22, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/developing-without-migration/86491 "2007-02-22T18:39:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/developing-without-migration/86491/1 "2007-02-22T18:39:04Z")
I found sometimes developing without migration could be faster than with migration, especially for a personal project and a new developer. I know migration could bring lots of good things during development. But as a green rails developer, I have to spend extra time on how migration works and how to roll back to a previous version, etc. such jobs are not important for a fresh new project or fresh new developer. I would say, setup database using any GUI tool could be easier for new rails developers, these developers are supposed to be familiar with at least one kind of database. Based on my experiences, the first inception could not be fully considered, so, frequent modification could happen. A GUI tool is more efficient than migration at this stage. It may save huge time and energy. Time is expensive, rather than spending time on learn how to let migration work, spending on coding could be better. My idea could be wrong, but I believe it could be somehow helpful to freshly new rails developers. ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/developing-without-migration/86491/2 "2007-02-22T19:14:28Z")
It really is worth learning migrations. It’s very easy once you know basic syntax and you’ll really thank yourself for doing it once you get going on a sizeable application. I’d also argue that new developers should start using best practices from the start. This includes using migrations, testing, version control etc. If you start using these things right away, you’ll be a far better developer - even if it means a few growing pains. Steve ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/developing-without-migration/86491/3 "2007-02-22T19:21:29Z")
Hey Surf, I considered the same decision when I started with Rails a year ago. Migrations are totally worth learning, even for a beginner on simple projects. In development, you’ll find you end up changing the DB a lot… and these are a lifesaver. In terms of populating the your database with test data, I found that the “best practice” way of using YAML fixtures was actually not so hot for my applications. It can be very time consuming if you have lots of foreign keys. To go along with Migrate, I ended up building something custom called Populate that helps you fill your database with test data (it has steps just like migration does). -Pete ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/developing-without-migration/86491/4 "2007-02-22T19:43:35Z")
On 2/22/07, Surfman J. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I found sometimes developing without migration could be faster than with > migration, especially for a personal project and a new developer. I know > migration could bring lots of good things during development. But as a > green rails developer, I have to spend extra time on how migration works > and how to roll back to a previous version, etc. such jobs are not > important for a fresh new project or fresh new developer. When things are too hard, we cheat. The migrations cheat sheet: [http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/migrations](http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/migrations) rake remigrate: [Organize Your Models — err.the\_blog](http://errtheblog.com/post/3) They really are quite simple. G’luck. – Chris W. > **[err.the\_blog](http://errtheblog.com)** > > Err the Blog: Ruby and Rails from the front. ---
**Author:** ![surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@surfman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/surfman)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 8:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/developing-without-migration/86491/5 "2007-02-23T08:24:43Z")
Good day! I am also a freshly green rails developer, but I didn’t find it difficult to learn how migrations work. script/generate migration (and script/generate model does that automatically), write a create table with more concise and beautiful Ruby syntax rather than clumsy SQL (Okay, GUI is faster but I have to launch another app while here I can do everything from TextMate), rake migrate — and there’s no step three! Remember, you have to spend extra time on how migration works and how to roll back to a previous version, etc. only once, and then you can easily use it! The same with unit testing — one can probably write simple Rails applications without unit tests more quickly, but when the tasks grow in size and complexity, you’ll certainly gain benefit if you have learnt to write test cases. Yours sincerely, Damian/Three-eyed Fish