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'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

learn-rails.com

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Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#51

Post by rartichoke »

hery wrote: post #12

Daniel, how far will you go with TDD on this book? What resource will you recommend to continue learning TDD after the intro in this book? Will you consider writing another book in the same spirit as this one (for beginners & kept up-to-date) for rails with TDD?

The problem with teaching TDD is there are too many opinions. If someone wants to use assertion based testing and fixtures then learning rspec and factory girl in depth is not going to appeal to them.

A lot of the useful information on testing comes from figuring out how to do certain things that are very specific to the testing lib you use.

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#52

Post by MattyMc »

It's been almost three years since I began spending nearly every available evening and weekend learning code and web dev. It's been a great adventure. However, contrary to the advice I was given I believe Ruby on Rails is not an effective place to start learning web dev, it certainly wasn't for me.

When I started, I had limited knowledge of HTML and almost no experience with CSS, Javascript, SQL or HTTP. I felt bombarded going through Michael Hartl's book (ruby.railstutorial.org), for example, trying to pick up all the concepts mentioned above plus the ideas of Unit Testing, ActiveRecord, the MVC paradigm, Rake, GIT, Migrations, layouts, partials and UNIX, to name a few. Nothing was sticking.

After now learning some programming fundamentals through an awesome Coursera course, learning C++ and Python to make small game mechanic, digging into PHP and launching a few fun websites, building a few projects with raw HTML and CSS while having lots of fun with jQuery and Javascript I feel I am ready for and can appreciate Rails. I'm now approximately 4-6 months from launching my first commercial product and this book will be perfect for my current purposes. I'm 25 pages in and can say that I love it's narrow focus (not including unit tests, for example) and also it's thorough explanation of all core concepts. I've backed the Kickstarter and can't to keep learning! Sorry for the long post HN! Long time lurker, big fan.

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#53

Post by jamesbritt »

DanielKehoe wrote: post #20
ihuman wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they they can send you unwanted emails. There is no such thing as a free lunch. In order for you to get the book, you have to give away your contact information.

"They" is me, a solo author who gave up six months of consulting income to produce a book to help Rails beginners. Would you care to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign so the book can reach the people who need it? What do you wish to offer in exchange? How about even offering a thank you? Or do you feel you are entitled to enjoy my work, offering nothing in exchange, and encouraging other people to act with no re…

I understand why you want an E-mail address in exchange for the book. What I don't understand is why, in addition to that E-mail address, do people have to create an account of some kind? Why not just the E-mail address?

The "Get the Book" page does not explain any of this, and left me puzzled as to what I was creating an account for.

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#54

Post by cdmwebs »

BorisMelnik wrote: post #40

the largest barrier to entry for newcomers wanting to learn rails is getting a dev environment setup

This is where tools like https://www.nitrous.io are awesome. We just hosted a RailsBridge-type event and we used Nitrous. Highly recommend this for teaching.

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#55

Post by vitoreiji »

rndstr wrote: post #43
tux wrote: post #4

for anyone who hate registrations for downloads ^_^ http://learn-rails.com/ebooks/learn-rails.pdf

I'm okay with giving my email but when it came to enter a password I stopped since I didn't know what I'm signing up for. There was no logo on that page and the initial Link said "to download"

The password field is for creating a password for this account, you don't have to type the password of any other account. There's no security risk here, since you never ever reuse passwords, right?

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#56

Post by jetblackio »

MattyMc wrote: post #52

It's been almost three years since I began spending nearly every available evening and weekend learning code and web dev. It's been a great adventure. However, contrary to the advice I was given I believe Ruby on Rails is not an effective place to start learning web dev, it certainly wasn't for me. When I started, I had limited knowledge of HTML and almost no experience with CSS, Javascript, SQL or HTTP. I felt bomba…

That's interesting to hear. I'm a system administrator and would like to learn web development. I was planning on starting with Rails. I know the basics of HTML and CSS and am pretty experienced with SQL. Do you have a route of learning you recommend?

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#57

Post by DanielKehoe »

BorisMelnik wrote: post #40

the largest barrier to entry for newcomers wanting to learn rails is getting a dev environment setup

Yep, installing Rails and setting up a development environment is the biggest hurdle for a newcomer. I wrote a stand-alone article that provides in-depth instructions for Mac, Ubuntu, and Windows. As a standalone article, it is easier for me to update (than if I were to include it in the book), plus it is available for free for everyone who needs it.

http://railsapps.github.io/installing-rails.html

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#58

Post by DanielKehoe »

cdmwebs wrote: post #54
BorisMelnik wrote: post #40

the largest barrier to entry for newcomers wanting to learn rails is getting a dev environment setup

This is where tools like https://www.nitrous.io are awesome. We just hosted a RailsBridge-type event and we used Nitrous. Highly recommend this for teaching.

Here's my article about getting started with Rails on Nitrous.io:

http://railsapps.github.io/rubyonrails-nitrous-io.html

Nitrous.io is a great way for any beginner to get started, especially for those using Windows.

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#59

Post by DanielKehoe »

MrBra wrote: post #46

Why in the book there is not even a paragraph on how to create an authorization system and session management?

Sad to say, based on my experience teaching weekend classes, it's difficult to introduce authorization or sessions in a book that's designed for beginners to read in a weekend. "Learn Ruby on Rails" is intended to prepare newcomers for more advanced books. Michael Hartl's book covers authorization so it is a good follow-on.

Re: 'Learn Ruby on Rails' is free today

#60

Post by will_lam »

I'm a backer of Daniel Kehoe's Learn Ruby on Rails ebook on Kickstarter. While I'm certainly not coming from a background of vast experience, I've tried other resources such as Treehouse (which is great by the way), it is VERY approachable and would lend itself to newbies and Product Managers who are learning to become more technical. After a break from Treehouse, I forgot most of the concepts as the stuff I learned had atrophied. When I needed to start fresh, and from a different perspective, his ebook is a great starting point for the absolute beginner.

I think it's awesome that Daniel opened up for people to download the ebook for free. I don't mind the $18 that I ponied up because I believe the value I've received is far beyond that.

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