$> rails myproject && cd myproject $> script/generate scaffold item name:string description:text $> rake db:migrate $> script/console >> item = Item.new({:n

$> rails myproject && cd myproject $> script/generate scaffold item name:string description:text $> rake db:migrate $> script/console >> item = Item.new({:name => "thing", :description => "blah"}) >> item.save! >> Item.first That's a start. The console helps quite a lot if you just want to play around with Ruby or any of the Rails modules. The list that carbon8 posted is a great start as well, and explains all the different aspects of the framework, etc. I'm a fan of Rails and Ruby. Also, I recommend maybe switching out my "scaffold" example, installing the rspec gems, and doing "rspec_scaffold" instead. It's a good idea to get used to a testing framework if you're going to be involved in a significantly scoped project. Enjoy!