Should you learn X?
The answer is always yes.
Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
31–40 of 112 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#32For the record, Ruby is just one, albeit massive, component. You need to learn a bit about each of the following areas. Must have: - HTML - CSS - Ruby - Ruby on Rails Really nice to have: - JavaScript / jQuery (or similar) - SQL / Database design Nice to have: - Git (Revision control system) - RSpec or similar (Ruby testing) You don't need to learn everything tomorrow, but I laid out sort of a roadmap of things you m…
That's a good point. I imagine that I would be able to pick up what I need to know as I go along, that's what would make taking the course interesting (sink or swim!). Here's the course description I was looking at. I haven't really looked anywhere else but I'm sure there are more out there. http://www.ed2go.com/monroe/online_course/rby/detail/Introdu...
The author is reputable and $89 is basically peanuts. Go for it.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#33I don't see why not... go for it! To supplement your Ruby knowledge and class, I'd say take a look at Ruby code snippets from Rosetta Code[1] to get a 'feel' for what Ruby looks like in a variety of applications. [1] http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Ruby Just out of curiosity, what kind of class is it? Is it in-person (with classmates and lecturer) or is it a web class (like University of Reddit)? What does the curriculum…
Absolutely. It's all online through a community college, description below. http://www.ed2go.com/monroe/online_course/rby/detail/Introdu...
Woah. It's a Ruby/Rails combo. You should have mentioned that.
The curriculum looks awesome: a lot of skills are introduced. However, the curriculum looks very Rails centric rather than Ruby (the language) centric. If you're going into website creation (and it looks like you are), go for it!
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#34For the record, Ruby is just one, albeit massive, component. You need to learn a bit about each of the following areas. Must have: - HTML - CSS - Ruby - Ruby on Rails Really nice to have: - JavaScript / jQuery (or similar) - SQL / Database design Nice to have: - Git (Revision control system) - RSpec or similar (Ruby testing) You don't need to learn everything tomorrow, but I laid out sort of a roadmap of things you m…
May I recommend that if you're new to Ruby and especially if you're new to programming as a whole you may be better off with web framework like Sinatra rather than Rails. Rails has a lot of "magic" and a fair bit of code generation that is going to make it harder for you to understand what is really going on.
I mean it's nice that rails can generate an "hello world" app without writing a line of code, I think you'll learn more about programming and writing a web app if you can better see what's going on:
Sinatra:
get '/hi' do "Hello World!" end
Rails:
rails generate controller hello
For that matter, don't let all this web and database stuff scare you off. Ruby is useful and powerful as a stand alone scripting language. You'll learn a lot just writing scripts that can run on the command line (and that will lay the foundation for the web stuff if you'd like to dig deeper). The web stuff isn't really any harder, but it's another layer of things to learn.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#35For the record, Ruby is just one, albeit massive, component. You need to learn a bit about each of the following areas. Must have: - HTML - CSS - Ruby - Ruby on Rails Really nice to have: - JavaScript / jQuery (or similar) - SQL / Database design Nice to have: - Git (Revision control system) - RSpec or similar (Ruby testing) You don't need to learn everything tomorrow, but I laid out sort of a roadmap of things you m…
What things would change if you went the python route?
Ruby = Django
Rspec = ????
Is that it?
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#36Ruby is a marvelous language, and it'll serve you well to know it. It's applicable in a lot of problem spaces, and it will introduce some concepts you probably haven't run into elsewhere before.
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#37For the record, Ruby is just one, albeit massive, component. You need to learn a bit about each of the following areas. Must have: - HTML - CSS - Ruby - Ruby on Rails Really nice to have: - JavaScript / jQuery (or similar) - SQL / Database design Nice to have: - Git (Revision control system) - RSpec or similar (Ruby testing) You don't need to learn everything tomorrow, but I laid out sort of a roadmap of things you m…
What things would change if you went the python route? Ruby = Django Rspec = ???? Is that it?
Ruby -> Python
Ruby on Rails -> Django
Git -> Mercurial (Hg)
RSpec -> Django's built-in testing
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#38For the record, Ruby is just one, albeit massive, component. You need to learn a bit about each of the following areas. Must have: - HTML - CSS - Ruby - Ruby on Rails Really nice to have: - JavaScript / jQuery (or similar) - SQL / Database design Nice to have: - Git (Revision control system) - RSpec or similar (Ruby testing) You don't need to learn everything tomorrow, but I laid out sort of a roadmap of things you m…
May I recommend that if you're new to Ruby and especially if you're new to programming as a whole you may be better off with web framework like Sinatra rather than Rails. Rails has a lot of "magic" and a fair bit of code generation that is going to make it harder for you to understand what is really going on. I mean it's nice that rails can generate an "hello world" app without writing a line of code, I think you'll…
Yes, Sinatra is a good option. However, OP will be attending a course that covers both Ruby and Ruby on Rails (see the link he posted).
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#39I'd say, learn Python or Ruby, doesn't matter, but try them both for a few days. One will click and the other won't. If you go the Python route, I've got a free book I'm working for beginners that might be too beginner for you: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ But I reference two other books on that page which actually could be a good start for you. After that, check out the Django book: http://www.djangobook.com/en…
Which will teach you Django, a very popular web framework (more popular than Rails actually)
No, it's not. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1459119
Re: Ask HN: Should I Learn Ruby?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Absolutely. It's all online through a community college, description below. http://www.ed2go.com/monroe/online_course/rby/detail/Introdu...
Woah. It's a Ruby/Rails combo. You should have mentioned that. The curriculum looks awesome: a lot of skills are introduced. However, the curriculum looks very Rails centric rather than Ruby (the language) centric. If you're going into website creation (and it looks like you are), go for it!
Indeed that's the plan. I guess everything I've heard about Ruby/Rails was about the combo so I thought they went together as a matter of course. Amiright?