Learning Ruby on Rails: Anyone want to learn with me?

[karakoram]

I've been working some tutorial books on Ruby and Rails. After diving into rails a bit, I decided to back up and focus on learning Ruby first because I am finding the syntax is beyond me right now.

I discovered a problem that keeps coming up in my Rails or Ruby tutorials: Programs that won't execute properly, even though I checked the code against the tutorials. I have no one to ask why. I need an instructor so I can ask questions. My local colleges don't teach ruby or RoR. They tend to be microsoft-centric. THe only non-microsoft stuff they have is Java and Perl

I am thinking of taking this course for $50: Ruby Programming 28th Batch: Registrations now open

can anyone recommend a beginners course (or let me know if the one above is any good)?

Anyone want to be my study partner?

 

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[rorschach]

For $25/month you can get a lynda.com subscription. It has a Ruby essentials course, a RoR essentials course and an intermediate RoR course. That site is pure gold if you ask me.

 

[vhgiii]

I am thinking of taking this course for $50: Ruby Programming 28th Batch: Registrations now open

can anyone recommend a beginners course (or let me know if the one above is any good)?

Anyone want to be my study partner?

I can't answer this question without first disclosing that I am one of the mentors at the RubyLearning.

But I will be your study partner if you want to take the course. This would be the time to take it, as this is the first course we are changing up to gear you not strictly for Ruby programming, but also with a 'cloud' twist. As well as the more fundamental command line application flavor. And an opportunity to get some testing experience in as well. 7 weeks of Ruby Fun.

In order to get a less biased (sounding) opinion, you will have to ask one of the prior students that have gone through the course. Which you could successfully ask for on the website you actually referred to. I am thinking you will have an opportunity to hear the good the bad and the rest...

 

[karakoram]

THanks Vhgii!

I replied to your PM via the e-mail addy you gave.

 

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[buckmajor]

Mean! I am learning this too. Sometimes the easiest language for others can be the hardest to learn lol. I'm excited and can't wait to see how the outcome of everyone's progress.

 

[buckmajor]

Damn! This is harder then I thought. I finally installed it but had to use RailsInstaller to get it working. I tried to install manually but the 'lib' file is missing. So I skipped it and used another alternative. That took me from last night until now just to install lol. By the time I get this right I probably be 50yrs old .

 

[77startup]

Im guessing you're using a PC?

 

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[James Fake]

I'd like to official join this thread!!

@buckmajor - oooh, Yeah; getting RoR all installed and ready to go on PC is gonna be a challenge.

 

[buckmajor]

Man! I'm really confused (seriously!!). I want out lol. This has been a great experience though (headache) and now I know how to use the CMD. I had no idea what I was doing but then got the hang of it once I could see the http://localhost:3000/ page working and could turn it off. I'm reading the book someone recommended me on the FLforum.

Ok, can we have a meeting please? Time: (NOW!) Place: FLForum. I want to know everyone's progress? So I can weigh it up and see if it is worth my time to study, otherwise I will have to go with plan B and hire a professional....(yea sure with no capital)

Thanks

 

[KhayShenz]

Oh I love Ruby!

I just "recently" started learning it - and recent, we're talking the last 3-4 months... and I'm ALMOST on my way to putting together a workable WEB APP. I'm also looking into mobile apps - with RHO MOBILE, utilizing Rails.

Definitely easy to learn!!

But I'm also dallying into Real Estate Investment recently - so my rails web app is "on hold" per se. Good luck everyone!

 

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[buckmajor]

Oh I love Ruby!

I just "recently" started learning it - and recent, we're talking the last 3-4 months... and I'm ALMOST on my way to putting together a workable WEB APP. I'm also looking into mobile apps - with RHO MOBILE, utilizing Rails.

Definitely easy to learn!!

But I'm also dallying into Real Estate Investment recently - so my rails web app is "on hold" per se. Good luck everyone!

I love you..AHEM!! I mean that's exactly what I needed to hear. Ok, so it takes some time to learn (Damn, here is me thinking I would learn in a week lol). After reading your comment, it sounds like it is worth the time and effort.

Come to think of it. Are you a natural programmer i.e. experience programmer? 3-4 months, is that 8hours a day, and 7days a week?

Cool! I haven't lost hope yet. I have been revived in Ruby :heartbeat:

What's your best technique in learning RoR? I am reading a book called 'Agile Web Development with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers)2010'. Do you recommend any other book that may be easy to learn for a newbie like me?

Much appreciated. Thanks

 

[KhayShenz]

Ok, so it takes some time to learn (Damn, here is me thinking I would learn in a week lol). After reading your comment, it sounds like it is worth the time and effort.

Yeap! Of course it'll take time - if I said it was easy (OR ANYONE for that matter), you should be suspicious! But definitely worth the time and effort.

Come to think of it. Are you a natural programmer i.e. experience programmer? 3-4 months, is that 8hours a day, and 7days a week?

I've programmed quite a bit in college - C++ though. Didn't exactly loved it or hated it. Just wasn't fun coz to me, C was a pain in the @$$ to troubleshoot. And that's why I love RUBY! =D Sooooo easy to troubleshoot.

Cool! I haven't lost hope yet. I have been revived in Ruby

Don't EVER lose hope! Mental strength and discipline is definitely key in achieving your "fastlane" dreams (especially if you have a "dream killer" of a nine-to-five job like me --- not that all nine-to-fives are dream killers).

What's your best technique in learning RoR? I am reading a book called 'Agile Web Development with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers)2010'. Do you recommend any other book that may be easy to learn for a newbie like me?

Everything that I learned about RoR (so far) I learned online for free. And honestly, I have never learned much when I "read" a programming book (same when I used/learned C++).

Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example | Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial book and screencasts | by Michael Hartl

All the best to you and your Ruby dreams! Don't hesitate to contact if you have any Q's. Or just need a cheerleader to cheer you on your endeavor. =)

 

[77startup]

Update: I'm putting ruby on hold to focus on Front end / Back end web development from the beginning using http://teamcodetree.com. I still want to learn rails ultimately but I realized without a strong understanding of the underlying technologies I wouldn't be able to create anything worth paying for.

 

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[James Fake]

@buckmajor - I would highly recommend a Mac computer if you're super serious about Ruby.. to where that's what you want to do for a living. It took me about half a day to get everything local environment setup.

 

[James Fake]

Took a couple days and really tinkered with installing the initial environment and settings to be ready to get an app ready to code. mainly with RVM, updating to Ruby 1.9.2 and Rails 3.1.1 and then removing (implode) them and then reinstalling them again. So prob a total of 4 times. I feel like I have a deeper understanding of what's going on then just pasting in some code from a 'how to setup' blog.

Practiced making gemsets and kind of understanding how it works. Got git and brew and heroku gems all setup as well.

Anyways, starting the Ruby on Rails Tutorial tonight: Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example | Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial book and screencasts | Beginning Everybody including my mentor suggests completing it.

 

[flamboyant]

Hi there, I just want to drop this into the discussion: Check out django (python) too. I know both frameworks and I prefer one (I'll leave that to you ).

Google "ruby on rails vs django" (or web2py, pylons etc.) and you'll find lots of interesting topics like this: python - Rails or Django? (or something else?) - Stack Overflow

Cheers

 

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[buckmajor]

@buckmajor - I would highly recommend a Mac computer if you're super serious about Ruby.. to where that's what you want to do for a living. It took me about half a day to get everything local environment setup.

Hey James, yea I am saving up for one. Maybe next week can buy one.

Took a couple days and really tinkered with installing the initial environment and settings to be ready to get an app ready to code. mainly with RVM, updating to Ruby 1.9.2 and Rails 3.1.1 and then removing (implode) them and then reinstalling them again. So prob a total of 4 times. I feel like I have a deeper understanding of what's going on then just pasting in some code from a 'how to setup' blog.

Practiced making gemsets and kind of understanding how it works. Got git and brew and heroku gems all setup as well.

Anyways, starting the Ruby on Rails Tutorial tonight: Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example | Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial book and screencasts | Beginning Everybody including my mentor suggests completing it.

I am doing some tutorials too. I manage to install on both heroku and rails 2days ago. But yea I think anyone can do it . I actually thought it was out of my league.

I copied the tutorial/book content and pasted in MSWord2010 to save it as a PDF doc. Heaps better when I view it in adobe acrpbat/reader on a 24inc monitor using a white color background.

I will post here for progress or help.

 

[livebig]

JamesF,

I wanted to say I'm going through the same book right now (less than 100 pages left). It is really fantastic, probably the best computer book that I have read. He's very thorough and is able to explain in ways that don't go completely over your head. I have also used the #rubyonrails chat on IRC if I ever had some serious issues. Best of luck!

 

[James Fake]

Got done with the Rails tutorial Twitter app. Ruby on Rails Tutorial Sample App | Home

Sign in using:
User: example@railstutorial.org
PW: foobar

Tried to do Rails for Zombies, Why's Poignant, and Ruby Koans.. but grew extremely bored as I wasn't really learning anything versus actually going ahead and working on an actual app.

So me and the mentor started on Freelanceful today!! Will be hacking away at that for the next few weeks. Hopefully will have something launched!

 

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[77startup]

Update: Finished learning html5, and Css3. Bought a macbook pro and I've started installing ruby via RVC. I'm going to keep focusing on building sites with css3 using LESS « The Dynamic Stylesheet language and learn ruby as I go. I tried to build my ecommerce site in ruby but I'm still too green.

 

[Andres]

Hi, After 5 years of developing complex web apps I can call myself a RoR "pro".
if you are planning on learning it here's a simple piece of advice: learn Ruby first, get one of the pragmatic programmer ruby books.
then jump into RoR. The only way of learning it well is by creating an application (start with something simple).
Although the community is doing well in supporting windows, you'll find all much easier if you use a linux or mac pc

 

[mavwrx]

in the process of learning c++. i want to learn cake php also...

 

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[joona]

if you are planning on learning it here's a simple piece of advice: learn Ruby first, get one of the pragmatic programmer ruby books.
then jump into RoR.

Why do you recommend learning Ruby first? I don't know either of those languages (yet) and I would like to understand the reason behind learning them in that order.

 

[Aldo Urem]

why learn that? you can build twitter like app with any other web programming language, my opinion you use python with django framework

 

[Incoan]

I've been constantly learning new stuff at my current job as a programmer (startup company in Vietnam doing mobile games for iphone/android). : ) Only a month or two in, though.

Interestingly, even though I kind of am okay at programming, the most frustrating part is always installing stuff. Never was good at installing stuff ; ). (Trying to install C++ and Qt atm on Windows Vista, and downloading Ubuntu... the download bar tells me 1 day left lol )

I took a quick glance at Ruby, and it seems to be quite cool.

Not sure if it is easy to learn. (Currently know basics of php, and doing quite a lot of coding on html + javascript. I still think I'm strongest at C++, though.) I never know and usually end up learning a bit of the language anyway (and surprise myself at how able I am at programming) : ).

 

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[Icy]

why learn that? you can build twitter like app with any other web programming language, my opinion you use python with django framework

What's the point of questioning why someone is using a language and the telling them to just start start using a completely new one with zero explanation as to why

 

[James Fake]

Oh, wow.. ironically I wrote this blog post How I Learned Enough Ruby On Rails In 12 Weeks To Launch Freelancify and saw this thread got updated. I think you guys will love this breakdown on what I did..

p.s. - if you're on Hacker News as well, I'd love an upvote.

 

[Andres]

Why do you recommend learning Ruby first? I don't know either of those languages (yet) and I would like to understand the reason behind learning them in that order.

RoR is written in Ruby. The "idioms" used in RoR will make sense if you get an understanding of Ruby first. It is frustrating to jump into RoR without knowing Ruby.

 

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[livebig]

I read your blog post, JamesF. It's a fantastic post. I even sent an email to Josh to get some mentoring. I'm so glad I've been following this thread. Your website is freaking awesome. Amazing, amazing job. You should be applauded, James.