Re:Ask YC: Going to RailsConf 2008. How do I learn RoR by then?
by wallflower on Thursday February 07, 2008 @02:08PM
(#111241)
Thanks. I like your suggestions to read and eventually hopefully grok it. I think it's interesting how nervous/unconfident I am to actually start learning Ruby and Ruby on Rails (Pragmatic Programmer advice to learn a new language every year aside).
And about doing something daily - it's a nice benefit that a job lets us get paid while maintaining/expanding our knowledge of the programming language we primarily use for that job.
I'll build my first to-do list (after this weekend - prepping for my first party on Saturday - was too scared to do it alone, so asked a friend to co-host, overinvited, she overinvited, 41 people have RSVP'd yes?!)
It's all about getting started and doing something daily so you don't regress. There is no such thing as failure only feedback, I've heard. It's true.
One way to approach this is just start by building something really simple. A to-do list (yes, I know there are millions of them out there) is a good app because you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. Its an idea that can scale.
Another thing to do is to watch some of the screen-casts as pchristensen correctly points out. RailsEnvy has some good ones to, and if you feel like spending the money, PeepCode has some good ones.
One way I learn is just to hammer myself with information. Read as much as you can while not coding. Most will not make sense at that time (but when it comes to learning anything, isnt that true early in the game anyways?) but every now and then you will be like "Oh yeah! I just saw something about that last week!" and it all comes together.
[Quick Update: I see that you did not mention that you know Ruby. I would spend a little time looking up Ruby too, because IMO, Ruby is far more than Rails, and regardless of whether you end up using Rails, your Ruby knowledge will help you better understand Rails, or any of the other frameworks out there like Merb or Hobo]