From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2007-01-27T01:10:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Learn by repetition - ruby exercises and answers?

On Sat, 27 Jan 2007, Shawn W_ wrote:

> I prefer to learn by repetition and I was wondering if there are any
> Ruby exercise and answer orientated sites with lots of exercises,
> starting with simple and progressing to harder.
>
> This is what I've found so far:
>
> http://blogs.pragprog.com/cgi-bin/pragdave.cgi/Practices/Kata (This site
> sums up exactly my thinking on learning, but looking at the problems
> that don't start easy. Something for later, after I learn to program
> with any skill, because at the moment I can only call myself a dabbler
> who's trying to improve).
>
> http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=view (maths orientated with a
> programming problems section, the first one looked doable for me, but
> not a Ruby exclusive site).
>
> http://rubyquiz.com/ (Most too hard for me - I need super simple to
> start).
>
> Books I am aware of are:
> Ruby Cookbook (too advanced mostly)
> Best of Ruby Quiz (book form of http://rubyquiz.com/ listed above)
>
> There are plenty of tutorial books running the beginner through Ruby,
> some even have exercises, but usually only a couple at the end of each
> chapter, if any. I'm after a source of hundreds of problems so I can
> learn by repeatedly doing.
>
> If you know of any sites or books close to what I'm after, and minus
> what I've already listed, please post them.

my reccomendation is this:  read ruby-talk as you already are and begin to
answer simple questions.  it's ok if your answers are not the best ones: just
be clear in your responses that you are learning and your answers should be
taken with a grain of salt.  you will be suprised at how effective this is.
this is precisely how i've learned ruby and, to this day, i am digging into
tht ruby source in order to answer questions i've never considered or even
care that much about.  i do this because

   1) it helps me.  i continue to learn about ruby even though i've been
   doing this and coding ruby full time for 6 years.

   2) it helps the community.  this makes me feel good since it certainly
   helped me in the beginning.

     http://groups.google.com/groups/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&num=10&q=2002+group%3Acomp.lang.ruby+author%3Aahoward%40fsl.noaa.gov&safe=off&qt_s=Search

cheers.

-a
-- 
we can deny everything, except that we have the possibility of being better.
simply reflect on that.
- the dalai lama