From: Wilson Bilkovich Date: 2006-01-02T16:38:21+09:00 Subject: Re: New to Ruby and Programming On 1/2/06, Will Shattuck wrote: > Hi folks. Happy New Year! > > I have lurked for a little bit to see what this list is like. I am > please to see how helpful people are. I have a couple of questions > for someone starting out with Ruby and Programming in general. > > Some background... I have some fundamental understanding of > programming, but I have more holes in my foundation than not. I work > with some friends on a C# project, I learned some basics of Java so I > kind of understand OOP. But I still do not grasp a lot. > > My question: Where should I start in learning to use Ruby? I have > some ideas, but I do not want to prejudice the discussion with my > ideas. > > Also, I have a project in mind to use Ruby... A Nethack bot. A friend > programmed one in C# and I thought it would be fun to try and use > Ruby. I know I have a long way to go but it would be fun for me. > > Anyway, thanks for any advice and help you can offer in this new adventure. > Others have already given very good answers on how to learn Ruby.. but if you want to learn the fundamentals of programming as a concept (rather than any specific implementation of that..), I don't think there's anything better than: http://www.htdp.org/ ..and http://www2.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/book.html In theory the second book is only available in hardcover.. but the Internet Archive still has the old free PDF version, from before it went to press: http://web.archive.org/web/20040202004840/http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/people/PVR/booksingle.pdf (The final version has corrections and improvements. If you can afford it, I recommend it.)