routes.rb

MyApp::Application.routes.draw do
  resource :contacts
end

# which creates the following routes:
#
#         contacts POST   /contacts(.:format)      {:controller=>"contacts", :action=>"create"}
#     new_contacts GET    /contacts/new(.:format)  {:controller=>"contacts", :action=>"new"}
#    edit_contacts GET    /contacts/edit(.:format) {:controller=>"contacts", :action=>"edit"}
#                  GET    /contacts(.:format)      {:controller=>"contacts", :action=>"show"}
#                  PUT    /contacts(.:format)      {:controller=>"contacts", :action=>"update"}
#                  DELETE /contacts(.:format)      {:controller=>"contacts", :action=>"destroy"}

stupid_helper.rb

# this is a "stupid" helper i created to map the rails3 route-syntax to :controller and :action values
module ApplicationHelper

  def route_link(name, route, html_options = {})
    route = route.split("#")
    link_to(name, { :controller => route[0], :action => route[1] }, html_options)
  end

end

view.html.haml

-# this shows how i would like to use "route-links":

= route_link "New Contact", "contacts#new"  # expected output: '<a href="/contacts/new">New Contact</a>'