Brian Hartin
11/3/2006 5:06:00 PM
Skotty,
Don't be discouraged. Ruby is *far* from the easiest language to learn,
especially when compared to languages like Java (the language itself,
not the complicated frameworks like J2EE). I think Ruby aims to make
hard things easy for advanced programmers, while perhaps falling down a
bit in making easy things easy for junior programmers. :) As you've
seen, passing blocks of code as arguments comes up fairly early in the
reading. This is a fairly advanced idea for someone new to programming.
Ruby also borrows a lot of tricks from languages like PERL which are
famous for cramming entire applications into twenty lines of code. In
many languages it's considered bad style to do 10 things in one line of
code, but in Ruby it seems par for the course. In my opinion this would
make it especially hard to learn for someone who doesn't have a
programming background.
On the other hand, Ruby allows you to do some really cool things which
would be much more difficult or impossible in other languages. Ruby on
Rails, for example.
My advice to you is to use IRB, take small steps, and if you get totally
discouraged, try another language.
Brian Hartin
-----Original Message-----
From: Skotty [mailto:shyguyfrenzy@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:07 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: Just a question to throw out there...
I was alright with blocks, and then along came these @ and several other
things, and def/classes and so forth. I guess it all boils down to how
much
dedication I'm actually willing to put into it. Which at this moment is
high, but I've been known to drop something after a short period of
time.
But I'm GOING to stick with this, to learn it and perhaps start other
languages.
But for now, I guess I'll just keep reading the tutorials and try that
problem solving thing, and pounding them out.
BTW thanks for all the great responses, this is what I like to see in a
community. :D
Skt
Webpage (www.freewebs.com/scottygiveshighfives)
Email: Shyguyfrenzy@gmail.com
(That's a mario reference.)
You sing a new song, unsung.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Conn" <bob.conn@btinternet.com>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: Just a question to throw out there...
>
> If it's any consolation, I'm a programmer and am finding Ruby tricky
to
> pick up. There are some powerful concepts in there like blocks and
> iterators that are new to me.
>
> Keep at it and you'll pick it up ... as someone recommended above,
> choosing a problem that you want to solve will keep you interested.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Bob
>
> On 2 Nov 2006, at 18:23, Skotty wrote:
>
>> Another noobrube question.
>>
>> Is this the "easiest" language to learn? I'm well aware that none of
>> these programming languages are "easy" but I've been struggling with
>> this for a while and don't want to give up.
>>
>> Or is there something else I should know first BEFORE going to Ruby?
>> Why's guide is a biggggg help but I don't know why I can't retain
this
>> information.
>>
>> Any help guides?
>> Anything?
>
>
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