i've actually read that book.
i think the problem is that that book teaches using AGILE development methods. AGILE development is not suitable for someone who is not familiar with the language in question.

i'd say that book is good for someone who already knows a good deal of Ruby but doesn't know enough Rails.

there's a book published by Sitepoint, i recommend you look at that.




i've worked with PHP for upto 5-6 years. i started ROR recently.
i like ROR a lot more compared to PHP...and i don't think it's harder to learn.

the only thing is, ROR is based on convention...so if you can set your mind to get used to a convention, then you'll learn ROR much faster than PHP because PHP is a little too variable in the practices it allows, i think.


i would go for ROR if i were you. but i recommend you spend at least a good 50-100 hours before you even start learning Rails.