Ruby on Rails is a powerful web application framework that makes it easy to build robust web applications. In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk through the basics of Rails development, from setting up your environment to deploying your first application. ## What is Ruby on Rails? Ruby on Rails, often simply called Rails, is a web application framework written in Ruby. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and emphasizes convention over configuration, making development faster and more enjoyable. ## Setting Up Your Development Environment Before you can start building with Rails, you'll need to set up your development environment. This includes installing Ruby, Rails, and a database system. ## Your First Rails Application Once your environment is ready, creating a new Rails application is as simple as running a single command. We'll explore the generated structure and understand what each component does.