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comp.lang.ruby

Ruby newbie: 3 week learning project

Al Abut - alabut.com

3/21/2005 9:57:00 PM

Hi all, I'm (very) new to Ruby and I'm blogging out every day of a 3
week course to learn the language, you're all more than welcome to join
in:

http://.../nonsense/2005/03/learn-ruby-in-3-...

I'm new to the list/group as well, so I'm not sure what the ratio of
newbies to experts is here, but there might be a few that would like to
brush up on the basics or know of others that might be interested.

Thanks!

Al Abut
- - -
http://...
- - -
15 Answers

B. K. Oxley (binkley)

3/21/2005 10:49:00 PM

0

Al Abut - alabut.com wrote:
> http://alabut.com/nonsense/2005/03/learn-ruby-in-3-...

This great -- thanks!


Cheers,
--binkley

Nick Hall

3/21/2005 11:12:00 PM

0

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 06:59:52 +0900, Al Abut - alabut.com
<alabut@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all, I'm (very) new to Ruby and I'm blogging out every day of a 3
> week course to learn the language, you're all more than welcome to join
> in:
> Thanks!
>
> Al Abut

Great idea!! I've been having problems getting ruby "jump started" in
my mind. This will help me! Strength in numbers. :)


--
Nick Hall
Alexssa Enterprises
p: 262.338.3742
m: 262.339.7348

James Gray

3/21/2005 11:18:00 PM

0

On Mar 21, 2005, at 3:59 PM, Al Abut - alabut.com wrote:

> Hi all, I'm (very) new to Ruby and I'm blogging out every day of a 3
> week course to learn the language, you're all more than welcome to join
> in:
>
> http://alabut.com/nonsense/2005/03/learn-ruby-in-3-...

Welcome to the Ruby language and community.

> I'm new to the list/group as well, so I'm not sure what the ratio of
> newbies to experts is here, but there might be a few that would like to
> brush up on the basics or know of others that might be interested.

Good luck with your explorations and don't hesitate to shout if we can
help illuminate some concept you run into with your studies. We love
to help.

When you have a little more experience and want to practice your new
language skills, take a stab at solving one of the Ruby Quizzes. A new
challenge is posted to this list every Friday, so you'll find one that
interests you eventually. Until then, start reading the solutions
people send in. That's a great way too get use to idiomatic Ruby.

Again, good luck and welcome!

James Edward Gray II

Al Abut - alabut.com

3/21/2005 11:54:00 PM

0

> Welcome to the Ruby language and community.

Thanks! It's been a very quick and warm welcome. I've heard about the
positive vibe around the Ruby community and it's awesome to witness
firsthand.

> Good luck with your explorations and don't hesitate to shout if we
can
> help illuminate some concept you run into with your studies. We love

> to help.

That sounds great and I'm going to take you up on that right now,
here's something you can help with: in publicizing my project, I've
gotten a lot of well-intentioned "why should I learn Ruby?" questions
thrown my way and I've been stumbling in trying to explain why it's so
hot. I hadn't thought through why I'd have to explain that actually,
especially not in the some of the more designery circles I travel in. I
just assumed that it would be self-evident to those stymied by either
the hackyness of massaging PHP/ASP/whatever into proper OOP or by the
massively overcomplex Java/C/C++ languages. Can anyone help me explain
(in English!) why I'm so excited about learning Ruby?

> When you have a little more experience and want to practice your new
> language skills, take a stab at solving one of the Ruby Quizzes.

What a great idea, I'll definitely look out for those.

Al Abut
- - -
http://...
- - -

Patrick Hurley

3/22/2005 12:02:00 AM

0

I will second the suggestion for ruby quiz. I know a fair number of
languages so there is really nothing new in ruby, but it is in many
ways greater than the sum of its parts. I read the pick axe book and
did the most of the quizzes (I did the old ones and in the last two
weeks caught up). Writing code is always the best way to learn a
language and seeing a half dozen other solutions is always
illuminative as well.

I cannot call myself an expert yet, but I know enough to know I like
it and have started my first real project (using Rails) and will see
how it goes.

Patrick


On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 08:17:38 +0900, James Edward Gray II
<james@grayproductions.net> wrote:
> On Mar 21, 2005, at 3:59 PM, Al Abut - alabut.com wrote:
>
> > Hi all, I'm (very) new to Ruby and I'm blogging out every day of a 3
> > week course to learn the language, you're all more than welcome to join
> > in:
> >
> > http://alabut.com/nonsense/2005/03/learn-ruby-in-3-...
>
> Welcome to the Ruby language and community.
>
> > I'm new to the list/group as well, so I'm not sure what the ratio of
> > newbies to experts is here, but there might be a few that would like to
> > brush up on the basics or know of others that might be interested.
>
> Good luck with your explorations and don't hesitate to shout if we can
> help illuminate some concept you run into with your studies. We love
> to help.
>
> When you have a little more experience and want to practice your new
> language skills, take a stab at solving one of the Ruby Quizzes. A new
> challenge is posted to this list every Friday, so you'll find one that
> interests you eventually. Until then, start reading the solutions
> people send in. That's a great way too get use to idiomatic Ruby.
>
> Again, good luck and welcome!
>
> James Edward Gray II
>
>

James Gray

3/22/2005 1:05:00 AM

0

On Mar 21, 2005, at 5:54 PM, Al Abut - alabut.com wrote:

>> Good luck with your explorations and don't hesitate to shout if we can
>> help illuminate some concept you run into with your studies. We love
>> to help.
>
> That sounds great and I'm going to take you up on that right now,
> here's something you can help with: in publicizing my project, I've
> gotten a lot of well-intentioned "why should I learn Ruby?" questions
> thrown my way and I've been stumbling in trying to explain why it's so
> hot. I hadn't thought through why I'd have to explain that actually,
> especially not in the some of the more designery circles I travel in. I
> just assumed that it would be self-evident to those stymied by either
> the hackyness of massaging PHP/ASP/whatever into proper OOP or by the
> massively overcomplex Java/C/C++ languages. Can anyone help me explain
> (in English!) why I'm so excited about learning Ruby?

This is a common question, so searching the list archives would
probably help here. Here's a couple of messages found with my own
quick search:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/brow...
thread/2816d23230d957b5/2b91e583f2db5073?q=Why+Ruby#2b91e583f2db5073

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/brow...
thread/aaa8a2cc48b0107/0daca0c782dd0f7a?q=Why+Ruby#0daca0c782dd0f7a

The description on the main site is quite good as well:

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/200...

In then end though, languages seem to vary their attractions by the
person telling the story. I can tell you what it means to me, but we
come from different programming backgrounds and thus my answers
probably won't match you own, after your studies.

Don't spend too much energy trying to please the masses. If they want
to learn, they will. Until then, give them a little tease, "Just watch
my blog and find out!" ;)

Actually, this is my favorite quote ever from Ruby Talk, by Mike Clark,
so I'll use this as an excuse to drag it back out:

"Ruby?  Oh, you won't like this language.  (Slides Pixaxe II out of
view.)  It's entirely too fun and productive for most people."

:D

James Edward Gray II

Daniel Amelang

3/22/2005 2:44:00 AM

0

Hey Al, I noticed on your webpage that you're in the San Diego area.
I'll be moving to San Diego for grad. school at UCSD come fall. Jamis
and I started the BYU Ruby Users Group back in 2003, so maybe you and
I could start up a San Diego Ruby Users Group (SRUG?, ooh, add H in
there and we get SHRUG!) in September. Plus, RubyConf will take place
in San Diego this October, so we'll have an extra push to get it
going.

I know everyone has said this already, but you _really_ should
consider changing your book to 'Programming Ruby'.

Dan

Al Abut - alabut.com

3/22/2005 4:48:00 AM

0

Hey Dan, yeah, that's rad, we should definitely hook up! Let's see how
much interest I can build up from this blogging series and maybe we can
even start it up sooner, have a nice cozy Ruby user group waiting for
you before you get here :)

And yeah, the Dave Thomas book looks great and I already have a
reference to it in the blog post under future things to dig into. I'm
already a big fan of his work, "Journeyman to Master" really helped me
advance my Actionscripting skills, I just didn't think it would work on
this project, since I had the idea of blogging out the progress on a
learning project that had a set and regular timeline (like the "Rails
In Four Days" PDF as well) rather than having to take a book and
haphazardly chop it up by how long I think it'll take me. I'm a newbie,
I don't know how long something will take by the very definition of
"newbie"!

Plus I figure that it's more of a natural progress to go from initially
learning a language to moving on to mastering the advanced concepts.
And although I appreciate their advice, I've noticed that the people
recommending "Pragmatic Programming" tend to already be advanced
programmers in more complicated languages who are "stepping down" to
Ruby, rather than designers like myself that are climbing the other way
up the tree and adding programming arrows to their quiver.

Al Abut
- - -
http://...
- - -

Al Abut - alabut.com

3/22/2005 5:20:00 AM

0

Hey Daniel, I'm not seeing my reply to you popping up on the google
groups, I'm wondering if I replied to you instead of the list? If so,
do me a favor and forward it here if you can.

Something I forgot to writeup initially - did you mean Jamis as in
37Signals' Jamis? Whoa, that's rad, 37S is practically every web
designer's Dream Team.

Al

Hal E. Fulton

3/22/2005 6:01:00 AM

0

Daniel Amelang wrote:
> Hey Al, I noticed on your webpage that you're in the San Diego area.
> I'll be moving to San Diego for grad. school at UCSD come fall. Jamis
> and I started the BYU Ruby Users Group back in 2003, so maybe you and
> I could start up a San Diego Ruby Users Group (SRUG?, ooh, add H in
> there and we get SHRUG!) in September. Plus, RubyConf will take place
> in San Diego this October, so we'll have an extra push to get it
> going.
>
> I know everyone has said this already, but you _really_ should
> consider changing your book to 'Programming Ruby'.

I'll weigh in here on the other side...

_Teach Yourself Ruby_ is a valid choice. It has a good, tight
organization, good material, and a good topic progression.

While Pickaxe is the classic work, and I would never be so heretical
as to disrecommend it, TYR might in some ways be better suited to
the newbie who wants to crunch through this stuff and learn Ruby.

And by the way, if you are judging TYR on the basis of other "TY"
books -- don't. The quality of these varies greatly, and this one
is among the best.

Of course, having said that, *every* Ruby programmer should own the
Pickaxe, period. :)


Just my opinion...

Hal