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Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

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Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#21

Post by vaksel »

Here is what you should do:

1. Get the firebug extension for firefox. It will allow you see changes live on your site, exactly how it appears in your browser.

2. Hit F12 to launch it.

3. Start out by learning basic CSS. Find a class to play around with, let's pick something like

   textarea {
   color: #000000;
   font-family: courier;
   font-size: 10pt;
   }
What will happen when you change #000000 to some other color, #ff0000? AHA! that changes the font color for the text box to red. Perfect, let's try another class.

4. Next you should learn HTML, use the element tool in firebug and select one of the elements. It'll highlight the element in question. And will show you the code for that element. Click edit, and see the full code for that element. Then modify the code and try different options, to see what the changes do.

I'd use Dreamweaver as a suggestion tool, since it shows you all available options. Which comes in handy, if you don't really know HTML like the back of your hand.

Your #1 priority is learning to read other people's code. After you do, you can quickly "borrow" their code for whatever it is you are working on. Especially useful if it's just CSS/HTML.

5. After your get the hang of HTML and CSS, you can move on to scripting languages and databases. By this point you should be able to read other people's code, which will help you find the code snippets in the code your freelancer wrote for whatever example you are looking for.

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#22

Post by mattyfo »

biz2hack wrote: post #4
ihumanable wrote: post #2

If you want to get a handle on the basics, especially ruby basics, try out ruby koans. http://github.com/edgecase/ruby_koans They are simple exercises that you can work through without prior knowledge, its a fast and fun way to get your feet wet. Then its important to read some books and get a good foundation under those wet feet, but we all know books can be boring, try to find one that has an actual project you wor…

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any resources you can recommend where I can learn more about programming in general? There seem to be a lot of things that people talk about that just go completely over my head.

Hey there, I've (re)learned to program over the course of the past year, listening to what your've said these are three books I think can help:

Start with Learn To Program 2nd edition as it will get you familiar with programming concepts. (I worked halfway through this book before I realized I understood most all of it) http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Second-Facets-Ruby/dp/19...

Next I feel Beginning Ruby is a good place to get in depth with Ruby (I'm still getting into this book) http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Ruby-Novice-Professional-Sec...

Last is Simply Rails 2 which is one big long Rails tutorial and will take you through the process of building a Rails app (it took me about two weekends to work through and has given me rudimentary understand of Rails) http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Rails-2-Patrick-Lenz/dp/0980455...

In addition, as other people have recommended you should try small programming exercises when you have a chance. For further brain teasers, I recommend working through the exercises in http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

Well there's a specific lesson plan that I think is geared towards your business goals. I'm not sure what your time constraints are like but if you spend some uninterrupted time with these books you should be able to tackle them no problem.

Anyhow, good luck, I hope you find the time amongst everything else to dive into this material.

PS Programming is a lifelong project, give it time.

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#23

Post by smeatish »

jacquesm wrote: post #17

Hey Biz2Hack, You posted this earlier today and I wrote you a reply, then when I hit 'submit' the page was deleted! Here is what I wrote: (1) Well, you certainly have your problems cut out for you. You won't be lacking in motivation, that's for sure :) Where to start... Programming is a method, a way of thinking, it has nothing to do with the actual language that you use to do it in, that's just a means to an end (th…

I'm pretty sure a hash, in the ruby context biz2hack has come across it, is best explained as a dictionary. It's an object that maps a set of keys to corresponding values. So you could have a hash that maps fruits to colors {:banana => 'yellow', :strawberry => 'red'} or people to occupations {'Steve Jobs' => 'CEO', 'Barack Obama' => 'President'}

http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Hash.html

Behind the scenes, ruby is using a hash function to implement the hash data structure, just like jacquesm says, but don't worry too much about that.

I jumped into rails development about a year and a half ago with minimal programming experience, so it's definitely doable. Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#24

Post by whatusername »

coderdude wrote: post #7

Just a general bit of advice: You will learn more iterating through "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat" than any amount of plain reading. When I learned Python, I sat down with Dive Into Python and the command line.

I think Dive into Python is a great book - but I wouldn't recommend it to biz2hack. At least - not yet. (How to Think like a computer scientist) is a better Python intro book - but if you've got a site in Ruby/Rails - start with that.

Completely Agree though on this: "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat"

Here's a first step for you - you've got a website somewhere - getting it running on your local machine. It might be worth installing something like VMWare Player and setting up a linux "virtual machine" - you can download pre-configured ones. (To translate - that basically means your windows computer can pretend to be a linux server - and that pretend server can run all of your programs - without changing anything on your own system)

Regardless of how you do it - let me repeat. Set it up locally and play with it. Change. Save. Test. Repeat.

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#25

Post by kyro »

als wrote: post #19
kyro wrote: post #12

Hey man, I recently had a similar revelation that I just needed to learn how to code. I picked up ruby a week ago with the intent of learning rails and building web apps. I knew a bit of python/django before, but nothing that could be considered hacker knowledge. If you want to learn together, let me know. It'd probably help the both of us. I have a few ebooks and what not that I could send you that have helped me le…

Kyro and biz2hack, I've been thinking it would be fun to get some beginners/novices together to learn the basics of various languages together. At some point we'd probably need to tap some outside wisdom but we could get started together. Interested?

Yeah, definitely interested. My email is in my profile.

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#26

Post by tsally »

Whys Poignant Guide to Ruby is an excellent, gentle introduction to Ruby. If it fits your personality that is. Have a look and decide for yourself.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2236084/Whys-Poignant-Guide-to-Rub...

Remember that Rails is just a large Ruby program. The best way to understand Rails is to understand Ruby (plus MVC and other general software development theory that Rails uses). If you don't understand Ruby, you'll just be a copy/paste Rails programmer.

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#28

Post by bugs »

One thing that will be limiting your motivation is how much you actually like coding if you truly do like it I'm sure you can be competent as to what is happening on your rails site in your time frame but if you absolutely loath programming the goal may be a hard one to reach.

For ruby you probably could do well starting off with Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/ and maybe buy pragprog's ruby book, programming ruby, or the ruby way and move up from there

Just remember to try and change the code yourself, you have to interact more than read the books

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#29

Post by coderdude »

whatusername wrote: post #24
coderdude wrote: post #7

Just a general bit of advice: You will learn more iterating through "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat" than any amount of plain reading. When I learned Python, I sat down with Dive Into Python and the command line.

I think Dive into Python is a great book - but I wouldn't recommend it to biz2hack. At least - not yet. (How to Think like a computer scientist) is a better Python intro book - but if you've got a site in Ruby/Rails - start with that. Completely Agree though on this: "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat" Here's a first step for you - you've got a website somewhere - getting it running on your loc…

I wasn't suggesting Dive into Python to him, he's trying to learn Ruby. I was just drawing upon an example. The VMWare approach, setting up a virtual linux box so that he can configure apache and ruby, might be a little much for a biz2hack, as you put it.

Re: Ask HN: Learning 2 Hack - For the very first time. With a deadline.

#30

Post by biz2hack »

callahad wrote: post #13
biz2hack wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any resources you can recommend where I can learn more about programming in general? There seem to be a lot of things that people talk about that just go completely over my head.

It really helps to have people to whom you can direct questions as you learn. Do you have any friends that are developers? People generally enjoy when someone takes a genuine interest in their field. Perhaps ask politely if any of them would mind occasional IMs as you work your way through things.

Actually, no...unfortunately. I think while I am at the Hacker dojo, I'll make some more friends as I'm here. But that's a great idea, I just hope to make some friends that will tolerate questions that are rather basic..
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