Ask HN: Best way to learn Ruby on Rails?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4092054

by jethrokuan • 14 years ago

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Recently dived into Ruby on Rails, with no prior experience of ruby. Only some background in C++,C, php and the likes.

I'm still juggling between learning RoR, CSS, javascript and hacking at vim, and it's really difficult to do so since I still have to focus on my studies (i'm still 16 ><). I need to learn all those to build a decent well-rounded app.

Any suggestions on where to start? It's not like I'm short of time so a long-winded but good way to build a strong foundation would be good.

lightspot• 14 years ago

http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ is a good place to start

biopharma_guy• 14 years ago

Start with this. http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html

Once you have some idea then you can go ahead with this. http://railstutorial.org

In addition, watch the webcasts

http://railscasts.org

michael_fine• 14 years ago

So, before you start with learning Rails, I recommend learning HTML/CSS. It shouldn't take more than two weeks to get a basic understanding, and by doing that you avoid the huge hassle of building a web app while barely scraping by with the formatting. Also, you might want to drop both learning javascript and vim, because you can build a solid web app without js, and it's very hard to learn multiple dissimilar things at once.

After that, a great resource is http://railsforzombies.com/, and codeschool in general. It's a series of incredibly well made video presentations, which you are then tested on. Once/before you finish that, you should work on actually building an application, maybe following http://railstutorial.org/.

Once you have finished that, you are well on your way to proficiency, and probably have enough understanding of rails to build your application. Some great resources are http://guides.rubyonrails.org/index.html, http://www.codeschool.com/courses/rails-for-zombies-2, and http://api.rubyonrails.org/.

If you have done that, and you still want to learn more, then I would learn more about javascript, and read The Rails 3 Way:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321601661/zenruby-20.... Finally to learn more about Ruby, read Eloquent Ruby: http://www.amazon.com/Eloquent-Ruby-Addison-Wesley-Professio....

Once you have done that, you should have a pretty solid grounding in Ruby, Rails, and web development in general.

jethrokuan3• 14 years ago

I've went through rails for zombies. Second thing i went through after poignant.

Was following Nettuts suggested method: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ruby/the-best-way-to-learn...

Incidentally I met Obie Fernandez in person :D at the Red Dot Ruby Conference in Singapore he sent me a pdf version of his book :D

I'll try out eloquent ruby, maybe after the pickaxe.

VeejayRampay• 14 years ago

Rails 3 in Action is a great book.

tnorthcutt• 14 years ago

Fourthing Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial book/screencasts. Great material.

jethrokuan3• 14 years ago

I'd second this, but it's difficult to follow it without the screencasts, that has to be purchased. I've been trying to follow the web version of this though. Not too bad.

Was learning on version rails 3.1, but now that rails 3.2.5 is out too many things have changed.

cmaxwell• 14 years ago

Go through Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial then pick something you want to make and struggle through it.

My first project was a golf statistics/handicap site. (http://www.golfingstat.com) It took me a ton of time and it was super frustrating at times but I learned a shitload just running into a brick wall and googling/posting on StackOverflow to find answers.

bbrown• 14 years ago

I'm not being sarcastic I swear, but just do it, your brain will catch up. That's how I learn 99% of any thing I study. I'm not saying reading and soaking in information isn't vital, but practice makes perfect they say.

thejerz2• 14 years ago

While I agree with the jist of your comment, I don't think rails is something you can "just do." Navigating the folder structure of a rails project alone requires an explanation..

thejerz2• 14 years ago

I highly recommend The Rails Way by Obie Fernandez. If you have some background in C++, C, and PHP, this book will suit you well.

However I agree with the other commenters that you should absolutely learn HTML, CSS, and JS first. There's no point digging into Rails until you know these basic technologies...

jethrokuan3• 14 years ago

I do understand HTML, CSS and JS to some extent.

You could take a look at the following a my friend and I (new to Rails) built using Ruby on Rails: http://supernotes.herokuapp.com/ for our school friends in a few days. It's still quite bare, with little JS or AJAX but that's because we're studying for our exams now.

I might have to learn the ruby first too. Seems quite key when i want to build my custom .html.erb pages.

Obie sent me the print version of his book, I'll probably take a look at it. Though in his email he considered it to be "more of an intermediate book".

Ask HN: Best way to learn Ruby on Rails?

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