Beginning Ruby
It seems that my advocacy and persistence has caused a stir in the local crowd. After the launch of the Malaysia Ruby Brigade, I seem to be picking up more and more followers, and a lot of them are new to Ruby and interested in learning more. So I thought I’d write a post on Beginning Ruby.
I personally think that Ruby has at the same time a high barrier and low barrier of entry. For people new to programming, it’s a very simple language to learn, but if you’re coming from a programming background, there are some perceived conventions that you’ll have to overcome.
I was never much into reading programming books, about 99% of the ones I pick up, I stop after reading 25% of it.
Why you ask? Because I
- get bored
- had itchy fingers
- feel that I know enough and can start hacking on my own
Because of that I’ll go over the interactive introductions to Ruby first over the books, because well I never finished reading them. Because of this I also don’t tend to buy programming books. This list is intentionally kept short so that it provides a nice variety of sources, but does not flood the user with so many possibilities that he doesn’t know where to start.
These are also the projects that I believe are the best resource in learning programming Ruby.
Official Ruby Site
The official Ruby site is the place of congregation for all things Ruby related. I personally think its a beautiful site. The site has a lot of resources for you to get started on Ruby.
Here are some recommended readings from their site, that I won’t go over:
Interactive
Try Ruby!
Before you even install Ruby, why don’t you Try Ruby! first in your Web browser. No need to worry about how to set up Ruby, or which text editors to use, or even destroying your System in the process. Try Ruby! is an excellent way to well, try it without worrying about the hassles with installing and setting up Ruby. It even comes with a 15 minute tutorial to get you started.
Try Ruby! is actually the interactive ruby (irb) application that comes with Ruby. It allows you to use Ruby from the command line. Nifty for experimenting and debugging code.
So what happens when you’ve grown tired of Try Ruby! and want more? Don’t worry, from the same creator of Try Ruby! comes Hackety Hack: The Coder’s Starter Kit.
Hackety Hack: The Coder’s Starter Kit
Hackety Hack (or sometimes referred to as HH) is the latest work of why (yes as in his name), bringing with him his colorful personality into a world. At the moment Hacket Hack is still in beta. The goal of Hackety Hack is to act as an introduction into programming, and the choice of language used is Ruby. Sadly at the moment it is only available on Ubuntu, Windows XP and Windows Vista.
In the attempt to lower the barrier of entry into programming, by default, installing Hackety Hack, you also install Ruby making it very easy to new programmers. Interestingly enough the programs you create are also referred to as “hacks“. You don’t use an IDE at all, or a text editor. You code within the Hackety Hack program itself, and it saves your “hacks” into a folder. You write Hackety Hack also uses its own set of libraries to let you do things quickly. For example, parsing feeds, doing web popups, etc.
Hackety Hack comes with its own forums, Talkety Talk, to facilitate discussions within the community. But an even nicer feature is the ability to ’share hacks’. When you register on the forum, you are given a workspace where you can upload your hacks and tables via Hackety Hack. Mine is a bit empty at the moment. Have a look at why’s.
I’ve previously written another post regarding Hackety Hack before.
I personally find Hackety Hack a nice introduction into both programming and Ruby.
Reading
Ruby in Twenty Minutes
How about trying Ruby in Twenty Minutes. This requires that you have interactive ruby (irb) installed on your computer. But don’t worry, you can try these out in the Try Ruby!. You may not notice but it is actually four pages long. The pagination is located at the title.
Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby
Another of why’s project is the Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. I’d consider this a radical book in that it approaches programming in such a different way that it really stand out. It is unique in that sense. It stands out because it is highly illustrated with bizarre comics.
I personally found it difficult to follow the Poignant Guide because it was just so bizarre. Though I do know other people follow it religiously. It may not be for me, but if you are up to it. Do have a read.
It is also available in PDF, for easy reading and printing, a soundtrack, and a purchasable a book.
The book and its materials are also licensed under the Creative Commons By Attribution Share Alike 2.5 License. So you are pretty much free to do whatever you want with the book, as long as the license is the same.
Programming Ruby
Programming Ruby (otherwise known as the Pickaxe book) is the original book I followed when learning Ruby (though I never finished reading it). Its a bit outdated (for use with v1.6 of Ruby), but alot of it is still applicable. A newer version is available, though its not available on the Internet. For a currently established Programmer, I found this book to be a great straight forward introduction into Ruby.
Ruby Cookbook
I find the O’Reilly Ruby Cookbook real handy as it gives practical examples to get things done quickly with Ruby. For example, setting up database connections, graphics manipulation, web services, automating tasks and more.
Other Resources?
Do you think there are other worth while resources that should be here? Please do recommend some then, and I’ll have a look at them.
Note: There are alot and a growing number of Ruby resources out there. This post will be updated as I see fit.
