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/