Ask HN: Learning Ruby on Rails

#1

Post by gsmaverick » Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 12:35 AM UTC

I am wanting to learn RoR. I don't really know Ruby. I currently use PHP & Python. What sites and/or books should I read/use?

Re: Ask HN: Learning Ruby on Rails

#2

Post by natemartin » Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 12:43 AM UTC

I recently relearned RoR after not using it for a while. I was recommended http://pragprog.com/titles/rails2/agile-web-development-with... and I definitely found it to be a good book.

What helped me the most was to just jump into a project and start coding. I decided to try to do a clone of twitter, just to see if I could get that working. It helped that I had a few friends who were good rails hackers that I could go to with questions.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Ruby on Rails

#3

Post by andhapp » Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 1:12 AM UTC

IMO you should learn ruby and rails framework at the same time. The knowledge of ruby will help you gain a deeper understanding of rails inner workings like the use of method_missing, concept of self and so on. I would recommend The Ruby Programming language by David Flanagan. The Pragmatic Programmer's book Programming Ruby is quite good as well.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Ruby on Rails

#4

Post by carbon8 » Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 2:34 AM UTC

Guides:

http://guides.rubyonrails.org/

http://asciicasts.com/ (text versions of the railscasts mentioned below)

Screencasts:

http://rubyonrails.org/screencasts

http://railscasts.com/

Books:

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/rails3/agile-web-development-...

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/fr_arr/advanced-rails-recipes

And others in the Ruby and Ruby on Rails sections at prag progammers: http://www.pragprog.com/categories

The "pickaxe book" (http://www.pragprog.com/titles/ruby/programming-ruby) is often considered the standard Ruby reference, and there is a version for 1.9.

API:

http://railsapi.com/

http://api.rubyonrails.org/

http://www.gotapi.com/rubyrails

Conference presentations:

http://www.confreaks.com/events

Ruby and Rails projects are abundant on github, providing lots of example code.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Ruby on Rails

#5

Post by neohacks » Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 5:56 AM UTC

I liked http://www.javapassion.com/rubyonrails

Re: Ask HN: Learning Ruby on Rails

#6

Post by tkahn6 » Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 6:01 AM UTC

I would seriously recommend you pick up 'The Rails Way' by Obie Fernandez.

The Rails framework and methodology/philosophy is somewhat hard to just "get into". A complete picture of what's going on - ActiveRecord, Migrations, etc - is incredibly hard to get from the "15 minute blog" screencasts.

I picked up the book last night and so far it's going well.

Re: Ask HN: Learning Ruby on Rails

#7

Post by biz2hack » Fri, Nov 20, 2009, 9:32 AM UTC

Hey! I recommend you check out #hnbeginners on irc.freenode.net ! People there would be very happy to help when you have questions!