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Ask HN: Best way to learn Ruby on Rails?

11 points by jethrokuan ↗ HN
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.

13 comments

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michael_fine
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.

jethrokuan
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.

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

jethrokuan
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".