Ignore routes for the moment, in their simplest form they are a solution for (re)directing the user to 'X'.

You need to read up on MVC (Models. Views and Controllers). A basic understanding of MVC is going to be a prerequisite of any framework you try and learn. There are a squillion php specific tutorials and videos out there. Have a google around.

Sorry to be so vague but you are going to have to study a bit more.

Good luck.

Thanks for the response. I read some good stuff on MVC and that has helped a lot. I think I get the basic idea of routes, at least as a shortcut for longer more specific URI's.

One specific question I have regarding routes. What is the difference between the "get" and "post" routes? My understanding of get and post is from forms and whether the information from the form is passed through the url or not. This seems to be something different?

I tried googling but can't find anything on this specific question.

Have a read of RESTFUL URLs and RESTFUL routing. Laravel supports REST and will give you a better understanding of all the HTTP verbs.

Thank you so much for your response! Any suggestions for where best to read up on RESTFUL URL/routing? I see the wikipedia entry but it looks really tough to follow.