From: Dark Ambient <sambient@...>
Date: 2006-08-04T03:15:50+09:00
Subject: Re: I’m having a hard time learning ruby.

As a newb myself I always find some delight in the realization that
other people are struggling as well.  So, in reality I can't address
specifically the parallels you are looking for between past languages
and Ruby.
My suggestion though would be to read up , books, like Programming
Ruby, edition 1 is available online and 2nd edition for sale as a pdf
and / or hard copy.  IRB is your friend because it helps you test code
in a very fast way. I do believe one thing - that the time you study
and soak in the material will be returned via Ruby's incredible
pseduo-code like style.   There are many methods that will make things
so much easier then most other languages.  Maybe I'm just naive and
could even be wrong but after about a month now , is how I see things.

Stuart

On 8/3/06, Nate Imaqaguy <breakingsoftware@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> For starters, just do you know where I'm coming from: I have little to
> no programming experience, except for some C and VB classes I took 6
> years ago, which I did fine in.
>
> My biggest hurdle getting started with ruby is finding which
> methods/classes/files to call upon for whatever the heck I'm trying to
> accomplish.
>
> I'm use to being able to perform a search, like in MSDN Library, using
> key words of something I'm trying to perform.  Then research results
> from there, and get pointed in the right direction (with explanations on
> what the feature does, and examples, etc).
>
> The editors also helped with showing the available methods, as I wrote
> the code.
>
> So, with ruby, I'm using the SciTE editor (on WinXP), which doesn't give
> method options as you go.  Yeah, I know they are kinda like training
> wheels, but they help when you're starting out.
>
> And I can't really find any close equivalent to using something like an
> MSDN Library.  The best thing someone has pointed me to so far is
> http://www.ruby-doc.org/.  Which is cool and all, but it's not really
> "searchable"�you kind of have to know what file/class/method to look up
> in the first place.  And even if I find what I think I'm looking for,
> the documentation is confusing to me.  Sometimes there isn't the
> slightest word as to what something does.
>
> Someone told me about ".methods", but that only works if you're in an
> irb session, which I find painful to use because I have to type all my
> code in, line by line.  I can't even figure out how to paste each line
> of the code I already have.  Inevitably I fat finger something and get
> mad.
>
> So, you can kinda see a n00bs frustration�.
>
> I must be missing something big.  Any tips (other than "try not to suck
> so much")?
>
> = )
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>