How To Begin Programming With Ruby on Rails
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Brian Vuyk October 31, 2006
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Well, I commend you! A quick disclaimer - Ruby on Rails is not for
everyone, nor suited for every job. That said, spend a couple hours
evaluating it, to see if it is right for you, or your project. It is a
very rewarding language to learn, with some capabilities far beyond
other languages.
Good starting points:
1. Visit the Ruby on Rails website, and watch the Screencasts and Presentations
2. Download Ruby from the homepage in point #1. Now Ruby on Rails
can be had in a couple of different flavours depending on your
platform.
1. If you are on Windows, I have tried RadRails, RIDE-ME, and
Eclipse with the Ruby Development Tools, and never felt comfortable
with any of them. Your best bet may be to program things using a text
editor such as UltraEdit along with the windows command line to run
scripts from, or to use JEdit in place of UltraEdit. Ruby usually comes
with an editor called SciTE which many people like. I couldn’t get into
it too well. But give it a try - you may like it. I haven’t found a
Windows development environment for Ruby yet which really did the
trick. There is a thread about it posted here.
2. If you are on Linux, I would suggest jEdit with the command line
to run scripts. Of course, if you develop with linux, you may be
comfortable enough with vi or emacs. I wouldn’t stop you from going
that way… Most of the suggestions listed for Windows are available on
Linux as well.
3. If you are on a Mac, go with TextMate. ’nuff said For more info, read the thread mentioned in the windows point above.
3. Follow through the O’Reilly Rolling with Ruby on Rails tutorial.
That should give you an idea of why Ruby and Rails are great together.
Don’t forget Part 2.
4. While you are reading, also check out StartAtTheBeginning and
the Tutorial in the RubyOnRails Wiki. And while you are at it, read
whatever other wiki pages you see that interest you. There is alot to
learn there, and you will find yourself referring to it alot.
5. Like what you see so far? You should get some books. Might I
recommend Agile Web Development with Rails: A Pragmatic Guide or Ruby
for Rails: Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers .
6. Bookmark the Rails API. You’ll need it. Don’t be scared, though. It’s alot smaller than the Java 1.5 API.
7. Join the Rails Forum. There are alot of genuinely talented
people there who would be more than willing to help you with any issues
you may have. Really - a great bunch!
8. Register or subscribe to the feed for my blog. I myself am still
learning about Ruby with Rails. I will post as much helpful information
as I can, in order to help other newcomers to the language to avoid the
same pits and traps I fell into.
Ruby on Rails is a young language, only a year or two old, and as
such, there are alot less resources available for it than there might
be for Java, or C/C or C# or any of the Microsoft Languages. But it is
very rewarding, almost a new paradigm for those willing to take it up.
Good Luck!
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