Getting started with Ruby on Rails

I started to learn Ruby on Rails recently. I thought I would document what’s helped me out along the way.

Ruby:

Ruby Koans - http://rubykoans.com/

This is a form of Test Driven Learning. It is free and can be run from a web browser without having anything installed on your computer (though I would recommend downloading it as it seems to be easier to keep track of where you are when you break). It’s an interactive way to learn Ruby and helps you keep testing in mind while you learn.

Programming Ruby 1.9 - http://pragprog.com/book/ruby3/programming-ruby-1-9

I did end up buying a book. It has been surprisingly quite pleasant to read and has worked out well by reading concurrently with doing the ruby koans problems. The two styles of learning seem to compliment each other nicely. There is also a free version of the book for Ruby 1.8, which can be found here http://pragprog.com/book/ruby/programming-ruby. This book does assume you have some level of programming experience.

why’s (poignant) guide to Ruby - http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/

While I’m not working with the book currently, I did read a good bit of it a couple years ago when I was getting started out programming. It’s a free, weird, and a pretty fun way of learning but may not suited for everyone. I think it’s worth checking out the first chapter to see if you enjoy it. Here’s a pdf if you get tired of the online version too http://www.thinkingaloud.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/wpgtr.pdf.

Rails:

Code School: Rails for Zombies - http://railsforzombies.org/

The first lessons are free. Everything runs inside a browser so no need to install anything on your computer. It’s a pretty easy going interactive way to learn rails.

Agile Web Development with Rails - http://pragprog.com/book/rails2/agile-web-development-with-rails

While I haven’t gotten started on this book yet, I’ve heard really good things and many people I work with recommend it.

Getting the code working on your machine…

Some tools that I found useful:

Homebrew (package manager): http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/

RVM (helps to manage your ruby environments): https://rvm.io// https://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm

Just doing a search for these tools can give a pretty nice step-by-step walk through on how to install them all http://www.frederico-araujo.com/2011/07/30/installing-rails-on-os-x-lion-with-homebrew-rvm-and-mysql/