Gem’s make my Rails world go round.
However, there are so many gems around that it would take entirely too long to comb through them all. I do have a method that helps me select certain gems from others.
Documentation.
If a gem is lacking in how-to’s, tutorials, or efficient documentation-I typically skip over it. For example, one of my favorite gems is Simple Form. Simple Form allows forms to be a little easier to read. My favorite part about it?
Look at all of that documenation on the Github page.
I love it. There have been situations where I use gems that don’t have great documentation. Typically that is when I’m desperate for something and have exhausted my resources. Odds are, the gem is a failure and I crawl into a little hole for a few minutes. Alas, gems are great to use and their documentation/codebase allows for steady knowledge and easy implementation.