Joe O’Brien is teaching Ruby on Rails to the consultants at his company and is especially enjoying how the language and framework two-pack makes agile development so natural:

Ruby and Rails have captured my heart and mind, not only because of the simplicity of the language itself, but also because of how much easier I can use agile development techniques without feeling as if I’m doing something outside the norm. No, I’m not saying agile development with Java is impossible, but I’m saying with Ruby and Rails, agile development seems natural, and almost a part of the language.

We call that “best practices by invitation”. By generating test stubs, having wiring for mocks ready to be dumped in, following a consistent directory structure all makes it easier to do the right thing. Less chores, more benefits.