From: Gregory Seidman <gsslist+ruby@...>
Date: 2007-09-05T23:22:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Learn First?

On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 04:02:50PM +0900, BScott wrote:
> Hello, all
>
> I'm new to Ruby and I purchased both Agile books for learning Ruby &
> Rails. I don't know If I should learn Ruby first or dive into Rails?

If you know how to program in at least one other language, learn Ruby
first. If you don't know how to program in some other language, get Chris
Pine's excellent Learn to Program (which teaches in Ruby), then learn Ruby
well (e.g. from the pickaxe book).

Once you know Ruby solidly, you are ready to not just learn Rails but to
use it effectively. If you start with Rails without knowing how to program
in Ruby you may eventually make it to strong competence in both Ruby and
Rails, but you will have produced hundreds of lines of code that
will/should embarrass you on the way (and heaven forbid they actually go
into production somewhere).

--Greg