Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#1

Post by anujkk » Sun, Jul 08, 2012, 5:14 AM UTC

After coding web apps in PHP/CodeIgniter and Python/Django/Flask, I now want to give Ruby/Rails a try(just for sake of learning as I'm quite happy with django for most of my projects).

So I would like to know what is the best way to get started with both ruby and rails? Which books, tutorials, sites you would suggest for learning ROR?

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#2

Post by stollercyrus » Sun, Jul 08, 2012, 5:53 AM UTC

You should checkout Michael Hartl's http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ and Ryan Bates's http://railscasts.com/

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#3

Post by Squanto » Sun, Jul 08, 2012, 6:02 AM UTC

http://ruby.learncodethehardway.org/book/ was a godsend for me learning Ruby (and OOP in general).

This link: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ruby/the-best-way-to-learn... is a strong starting point for rails.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#4

Post by briandear » Sun, Jul 08, 2012, 6:40 AM UTC

In addition to the Hartl screencasts and book, I would recommend CodeSchool's Rails for Zombies 2 course. Pretty useful when combined with other resources.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#5

Post by gyardley » Sun, Jul 08, 2012, 10:02 AM UTC

In addition to the other resources in this thread, I'm also finding the Ruby Koans (http://rubykoans.com/) useful for drumming syntax into my head.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#6

Post by olegious » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 8:52 AM UTC

For me the biggest issue has been learning how to deploy apps onto my Linode server. I have no problems creating local apps, still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong with deployment to production.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#7

Post by countessa » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 10:04 AM UTC

For a quick intro to Rails, you can't go wrong with: http://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html

Follow that up with Michael Hartl's already suggested book for a more in-depth walk through building an app.

I wouldn't suggest Hartl's work if you just want a feel for it before you commit time to learning Rails proper because he does take you through a lot of git use and tdd before you get to the nitty-gritty of building your application. It's very thorough, but won't give you the immediate buzz of whipping up an app.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#8

Post by brianritchie » Wed, Jul 11, 2012, 9:30 PM UTC

olegious wrote: post #6

For me the biggest issue has been learning how to deploy apps onto my Linode server. I have no problems creating local apps, still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong with deployment to production.

You could give Capistrano a try. Works wonders for deployments

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#9

Post by omoijuanfo » Thu, Jul 12, 2012, 3:28 PM UTC

check out code school its pretty cool

http://www.codeschool.com/courses/try-ruby

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to learn Ruby/Rails?

#10

Post by ashconnor » Sun, Jul 15, 2012, 9:03 PM UTC

brianritchie wrote: post #8

olegious wrote: post #6

For me the biggest issue has been learning how to deploy apps onto my Linode server. I have no problems creating local apps, still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong with deployment to production.

You could give Capistrano a try. Works wonders for deployments

I definitely recommend watching this Railscasts for info on deploying: http://railscasts.com/episodes/335-deploying-to-a-vps