From: Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@...>
Date: 2005-11-13T14:42:54+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby - Newbie to Guru - Advice?

On 11/10/05, Sean Hussey <seanhussey@gmail.com> wrote:
> Alright, I've been bitten by the Ruby bug, but I haven't yet had that
> "Eureka!" moment that has me thinking in blocks and metaclasses.  I've
> read lots of documentation and articles, but I'm lacking in practical
> hands-on knowledge.
>
> My question is, if you were stranded on a desert island (with a laptop
> and power supply), and you decided to use the time to become a Ruby
> guru:
>
> What resources would you want with you?

Newest copy of the Pickaxe, The full API docs, Why's guide, The Rails
book, and The Ruby Way.  The latest Rails and  the latest PDF::Writer

Also Web Standards Solutions, the markup and style handbook.  For
making any and all rails apps look pretty.

I'd also need instiki for recording my stay on the island.

HighLine, Ruport, and Gambit too, but I think I'll always have the
latest of those 3 :)
(until James and I get seperated forever)

Oh wait... can I bring JEG2 too?  That'd be good.  (Though I doubt
he'd retain his sanity)

Actually, I want to be really greedy... can I rsync against the
gems.rubyforge.org server?
I want em all!

> What types of programs would you want to attempt?

I'd be finishing Ruport... wait... that's already what I'm doing.  Slowly...

I'd write BirdWars 2 for gambit.  And it would use mad crazy AJAX everywhere

> What programming exercises would you want to help you practice new
> Ruby things as you learn them?

If it was after February, not just as a shameless plug for a great
friend, I'd want James Edward Gray II's Best of the Ruby Quiz.   Come
on, is there a more diverse set of problems
than the RubyQuiz?

And some kickass continuations tutorial.  Because they still melt my brain

> How would keep track of (benchmark) your progress to know you were progressing?

When I wrote a ruby program that built a ship for me with a GPS that
sailed me off the island
I know i progressed enough ;)

Seriously, same way I already know.   Write unit tests.  When they
pass, I'm progressing.