From: dblack@...
Date: 2006-01-03T22:56:01+09:00
Subject: Re: How to learn 'the ruby way'

Hi --

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Frank Spychalski wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> I follow this list for some time but due to the volume I might have missed 
> it, if this was answered before...
>
> I have another problem: I'm programming for some time (~20 years, if you 
> count the good old BASIC days), I've studied CS, I've used C/C++ (a bit), 
> Shell (some), Perl (some), PHP (some), Java (a lot) and a lot of other 
> languages. I think I understand most of the ruby language but I fear I'm 
> still using it in the wrong way. What I'm looking for, is a way to learn 'the 
> ruby way'. I'm thinking something like:
>
> - Problem
> - This is how you would have done it in another language
> - Nice Ruby Solution

For me, part of the Ruby way is to skip the second of those three
steps :-)  Of course it can be interesting to compare implementations;
but from what I've seen, I don't think writing the code in another
language first is very useful as a way of learning Ruby.  I'd
recommend going straight from problem to Ruby, and then working on the
Ruby.

> I have the pickaxe and the ruby on rails book and I'm reading both
> at the moment. I looked through the sample chapter of 'The Ruby Way'
> but it seemed more like a cookbook to me.

Don't let that stop you from reading it, though.  You'll learn a lot.
And a new edition is coming out, later this year.


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net

"Ruby for Rails", from Manning Publications, coming April 2006!
http://www.manning.com/books/black