From: James Britt <jamesUNDERBARb@...>
Date: 2005-03-21T12:52:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby, brother of VB?

Mike Cox wrote:
> ...
> So my question is, what do I need to know to get started from a VB
> background?

Forget all the VB you've ever learned.  Really.  I was a VB hacker for 
some time.  I liked it, it paid the rent, got me published.  But habits 
acquired using VB will get in the way of using Ruby.

There are essential aspects to Ruby that don't really have a counterpart 
in VB.  Certainly the approach to OO programming in VB is, um, quite 
different than in Ruby.

As others have mentioned, go read Programming Ruby by Dave Thomas. But 
also try to find a good book that explains object-oriented programming; 
perhaps Designing Object-Oriented Software, by Rebecca Wirfs-Brock.

(I'd be leery of books that focused too much on Java or C#, as they have 
their own OO quirks that might impede grokking Ruby goodness.)

And read a lot of Ruby code.  Maybe start with the Weekly Ruby Quiz 
(posted to this list).  See if you can figure out what are doing.  Ask 
questions.  Stick around.

> 
> P.S. Here's the link to the comp. lang lineage chart:
> http://www.levenez.com/lang/history.html

Means nothing, really, as it does not indicate just what was borrowed 
and to what degree.

James
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