# How to Start

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-start/121605>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 29, 2007, 7:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-start/121605 "2007-11-29T07:55:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rodolpho\_Almeida](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@Rodolpho\_Almeida](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rodolpho_Almeida)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 7:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-start/121605/1 "2007-11-29T07:55:45Z")

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Sorry to bug everyone with this, but I am new to all this programing  
stuff and as far as I have seen Ruby is a nice language to start.

I am must interested in Web Applications and as I saw I should use Rails  
for it, but I got a little lost on the way, can someone give-me a idea  
off where to look at?

I want to know how to use rails? can Ruby do everything that PHP does?  
Does it work well with MySql? What is the best program to use with  
Rails?

Again Sorry for bugging

And Thanks for your time.

Rodolpho Almeida

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rodolpho\_Almeida](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@Rodolpho\_Almeida](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rodolpho_Almeida)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 8:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-start/121605/2 "2007-11-29T08:55:04Z")

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You should check out the RoR mailing list.

[http://www.ruby-forum.com/forum/3](http://www.ruby-forum.com/forum/3)

Regards,  
Lee

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rodolpho\_Almeida](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@Rodolpho\_Almeida](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rodolpho_Almeida)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2007, 9:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-start/121605/3 "2007-11-29T09:32:16Z")

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If you’re new to programming I’d strongly recommend first learning  
some basic programming, without getting involved too much in the web  
application side. Rails is very complex framework; even I haven’t got  
my head round it and I’ve been programming for years. You might find  
this page useful: [http://www.squidoo.com/ruby-programming-beginner/](http://www.squidoo.com/ruby-programming-beginner/)

On to your questions:

> I want to know how to use rails?

I recommend this tutorial:  
[Radar – O’Reilly](http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/12/14/revisiting-ruby-on-rails-revisited.html).  
That’s what I used to get started with rails.

can Ruby do everything that PHP does?

The difference between PHP and Rails is that PHP is simply a mechanism  
for embedding programming code in a text file. Ruby on Rails is also  
this, but so much more as well. Rails is a whole framework that  
supports your web application, providing a great deal of necessary  
base architecture for you, allowing to concentrate on the parts of  
your web application that make it unique. In PHP, you have to do all  
of this yourself. It is my opinion that Rails is more powerful that  
PHP.

Does it work well with MySql?

Yes! Very well.

What is the best program to use with Rails?

I’m not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean text editors/IDEs for  
coding or something else? I use gVim for my coding 🙂