Ruby on Rails is all very well, but what are its benefits?

I was looking through the new sitepoint Ruby on Rails book. I took a look at the article on the main page and read most of it, however I didn't instantly see why ruby is so beneficial.

Aperantly it reduces code because it incorporates a variety of libraries used for database connectivity, AJAX, and so on.

I am not entirely sure on if this is correct (I have never used the framework before) so could someone please explain the primary benefits of the ROR.

I could see two things, maybe.

1. Coding by convention - if you follow the default settings of a typical Rails app, then a lot of work is done for you. For example, if you have a class called Book that's derived from ActiveRecord::Base, it expects a database table called "books". If you have that table set up, you don't have to specify it explicitly. One less thing to write in your code, and more importantly, one less thing to test and maintain.

2. Don't Repeat Yourself - the Rails framework makes it very easy to follow programming patterns like MVC (model-view-controller) which will help better organize and modularize your code. For exmaple, if you find that you're doing a lot of model-related things in your controller, and each controller method is doing something similar, it would be easier for you to move those methods into the model (or into another controller method, whatever works best). One place to change the same functionality app-wide. This makes for easier writing, maintenance and again, testing.

3. Yes you can get up and running quickly with things like scaffolds and Rails plugins that add a lot of functionality to your site in little time, but that's a very small part of the larger picture.

Now as for Ruby, it's an object-oriented scripting language with a clean syntax and a low barrier to entry. The "benefits" of Ruby, especially as it relates to whatever language you're currently using, will vary based on your needs.

What advantages does RoR have over ASP.Net and vice versa? There are a lot of 3rd. party components available for use with ASP.Net. Are there similar components available for RoR? Is there a need for 3rd. Party components with RoR?