What exactly is Arel in Rails 3.0?

Question

I understand that it is a replacement for ActiveRecord and that it uses objects instead of queries.

But...

why is this better?

will objects/queries

Answer 1

Arel in Rails 3 makes relation objects where the db isn't queried until you need it. Much more efficient.

It's also more natural (once you get used to it) which is really the great strength of Rails.