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Learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails


 

How to learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails by rumblestrut

"Although I'm far from a master, I've definitely learned the language enough to not need a book or cheat sheet with about 50 percent of the time."

How I did it: I'm an autodidact that loves learning through books.

Basically, I would spend time reading a little bit at a time out of one book at a time, then work with the computer on the exercises provided in the books. I find that books with exercises in them help me more to learn than reading theory.

If married, it sure doesn't hurt to have a spouse who supports you studying at home. It's cheaper than going to college again.

Finally, I've found that having a paper copy and a digital copy works pretty well. I can take the paper copy of the book with me, but have the digital copy on the computer for working on the exercises. A dual monitor setup really works well with that, so you can keep your digital book (like a PDF) open on one monitor, and your browser and text editor open on the other.

Lessons & tips:

  • Read reviews of books on Amazon.com, then pick the best ones either from Amazon, your library or your local bookstore.
  • Pick books that are a good fit with your current understanding of the subject.
  • Set reminders on a calendar and stick with it.
  • Have 43things send you an e-mail every week as a gentle reminder, so that you don't slack off. It worked for me.

Resources: Books
Learn to Program, by Chris Pine
Rails Solutions, by Justin Williams
Simply Rails 2, by Patrick Lenz (highly recommended)

My blog about the experience
smallshock.rumblestrut.com


 

Dec 21, 2008, 08:32AM PST | 1 comment


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    Entries

    storypixel

    Untitled 9 months ago

    I followed some tutorials to get a basic Ruby on Rails blog launched however I am far from proficient in Ruby on Rails. I would really like to gain a mastery of the language because I see it as a doorway leading to the ability to give my ideas Web legs.

    Jan 30, 10:05AM PST | 0 comments


    olivepeople

    getting a new website... with Ruby & Rails support 17 months ago

    hmmmmm sounds like I could be playing a little with this in the nearish future :)

    Jun 02, 2008, 07:49PM PDT | 0 comments


    kpetrifier

    Getting started 18 months ago

    http://alistapart.com/articles/gettingstartedwithrubyonrails

    Apr 27, 2008, 03:52PM PDT | 1 comment


    Ash Ponders

    Untitled 19 months ago

    no point gotta learn objc

    Apr 16, 2008, 05:53PM PDT | 0 comments


    smoli

    Bought some books and a leopard 22 months ago

    Ordered the latest RoR book and Rails Recipes. Also ordered leopard to make life easier.

    Read the first edition RoR book and took a course, but I need to start a real project to feel like I really know it. I’ll mark this goal as complete once I’ve built a working site.

    Jan 16, 2008, 01:58AM PST | 0 comments


    olivepeople

    A little Ruby on the side 2 years ago

    I’ve been toying with Ruby for the past few days and really like the way it seems to work. It’s kind of fun—and it’s been a long time since I’ve said that about anything programming related!!

    Rails… well, let’s just say that my linux box is sick and doesn’t seem to want to let mysql work anymore. So that kind of curtails the Rails learning process. But, I’ll get there somehow.

    Ultimately, I’d like to develop some new sites with this stuff. It would be cooooool. :)

    Jul 03, 2007, 11:35AM PDT | 0 comments


    Andy On Rails

    Have started learning ROR. 2 years ago

    It seems really fun to learn.

    May 01, 2007, 08:57AM PDT | 0 comments


    mdask

    Under Way 2 years ago

    Got everything installed this morning – Ruby, mySql, etc. Working my way through the 2nd edition of agile ruby on rails

    Feb 24, 2007, 04:16PM PST | 1 cheer | 0 comments


    peekay

    So what's the best book 2 years ago

    To learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails – any suggestions?

    Jan 16, 2007, 07:37AM PST | 2 comments


    motoras

    good experience 3 years ago

    Great framework, so so langauge

    Aug 20, 2006, 09:34PM PDT | 0 comments


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