It seems that now when I use the link_to helper in rails, if it doesn't have a recognized route, it gives a Rails barf, instead of just displaying the link regardless like before. So if I was prototyping a site and adding a load of links to sections that didn't exist yet, ie.

<%= link_to 'section that doesnt exist yet', :controller => "non_existent_controller", :action => "index" %>

It will barf with...

No route matches {:action=>"index", :controller=>"non_existent_controller"}

Now this is all well and good if I make a typo, but if I genuinely want to link to something that doesn't exist, for whatever reason, then I think I should be able to do so. They are called helpers after all, not hinderers!