If you noticed it’s quiet around here, stress less, it’s not the beginning of the zombie-apocalypse, it’s just me being been busy playing with Ruby on Rails. I find the best way to learn is to just jump right in and start playing with code.
For those of you who are interested in learning Ruby on Rails I can’t recommend the following sites enough! They have been a great help.
- Code School - RailsForZombies If you have no idea where to begin and your new on the block then this is the best place to start. Sign up (which is free) and join Gregg Pollack from Envy Labs who will walk you through the basics of learning Ruby on Rails in five levels, each of which is followed by a series of code challenges where you get to start coding Rails immediately in the browser. This course will teach you the basics of Ruby on Rails including CRUD, models, views, controllers and routing.
- Rails Casts[ RailsCasts is produced by Ryan Bates. He offers screen-casts which are short and focus on one technique so you can quickly move on to applying it to your own project. The topics target the intermediate Rails developer, but beginners and experts will get something out of it as well.
To teach yourself Ruby on Rails I find it’s best if you pick something that’s already been done like Twitter or Amazon (only much smaller) and make your own version of it using Ruby. I decided to create my own version of IMDB and add cool new features like having your own library, friends, movie review requests, recommending media to friends, etc.
A few items I recommend taking a look at
- Sass CSS
- Haml (HTML Abstraction Markup Language)
- Sinatra Web framework. Basically, it’s a library that allows you to write web applications with a minimum of red tape. You simply load Sinatra, and start coding application logic. I recommend learning Ruby without it for a little while until you get the basics down pat.
- TextMate Easy to use text editor, if you’re using a Mac that is.
If there is anything that’s helped you while learning Ruby on Rails or any awesome tool that makes it easier or more enjoyable then please do share it in the comments section below!
-Matt