Here are a few issues I have run into.

1. SQLite3 is the new default database instead of MySQL as of version 2.0.2 (see the official blog post)

The reasoning is that it is easier to use and great for beginners who want to jump right in and play around in a sandbox or small app.

To use MySQL instead of SQLite3 (on Windows):

• Install MySQL (see MySQL downloads page)
• Check to see if the gem is already installed from the command line:

  gem list

• If it is not listed, install the MySQL gem:

  gem install mysql

• force your new app to to use MySQL:

  rails -d mysql project_name

2. The SQLite gem is broken (on Windows systems at the time of this writing)

It seems there is no windows support for the latest gem version 1.2.4 so installation fails. It seems previous versions had an ms32 compiled version for Windows and was included in the gem. If have Visual Studio and enough experience you could download and compile it yourself. A workaround for this is to explicitly install the previous version:

gem install -v1.2.3 sqlite3-ruby

You will also need to download the sqlite3.dll file from sqlite.org and place it in your bin directory (c:\ruby\bin\). Be sure to download the “precompiled binary for windows” dll.

I then went ahead and deleted the “sqlite3-ruby-1.2.4″ from my gems folder (c:\ruby\lib\ruby\gems\1.8\gems\) since the failed installation notice indicated that these files are only there for inspection.

3. Dynamic scaffolding, the magic that got many people excited about RoR, was deprecated in favor of using the scaffold generator.

You can no longer jump into your controller and say:

scaffold :model_name

Instead, use the scaffold generator from the command line:

ruby script\generate scaffold model_name field_name_1:data_type field_name_2:data_type

Troubleshooting errors and wading through intertube forums was far from what I had in mind for a first RoR experience. Hopefully this will help some people get up and running faster. We’ll see if there’s a need for a “Gotchas for Beginners 2″.

I’ve started to immerse myself in Ruby on Rails literature, admittedly due to the “buzz”, but there are many forward-thinking web frameworks out there. Here’s a list of some popular ones with links and brief descriptions summarized from their respective websites.

• Ruby on Rails – Built on Ruby. Full stack, Web application framework optimized for sustainable programming productivity, allows writing sound code by favoring convention over configuration.
• Merb – Built on Ruby. ORM-agnostic, JavaScript library agnostic, and template language agnostic, preferring plugins that add in support for a particular feature rather than trying to produce a monolithic library with everything in the core.
• TurboGears – Built on Python. Rapid development “front-to_back” web meta-framework. Its aim is to simplify and speed up the development of modern web applications
• Django – Built on Python. High-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
• CodeIgniter – Built on PHP. Open source web application framework for use in building dynamic web sites. Enables developers to build applications faster by providing a rich set of libraries for commonly needed tasks, as well as a simple interface and a logical structure to access these libraries.
• CakePHP – Built on PHP.  Open source web application framework for producing web applications. It is written in PHP, modeled after the concepts of Ruby on Rails.
• ASP.NET MVC – Built on… ASP.NET. Enables you to build Model View Controller (MVC) applications by using the ASP.NET framework.  This does not really qualify as “popular” yet since it has just been released, but I’ll be exploring it in detail so I’ve added it for posterity.

And More…

Wow, I must admit that I had no idea there were so many MVC frameworks out there. This wikipedia page has a pretty comprehensive list.