From: Raju Gandhi <raju.gandhi@...>
Date: 2008-04-27T23:02:33+09:00
Subject: Re: newbie; needs direction

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Again, Welcome to Ruby!!! Like you, I too am a Ruby Nuby so I hope my take
here helps.

First, I agree. Write some code to get a feel of the language. As they say,
programming is not a spectator sport. Start something small, anything that
interests you. Browse Ruby Quiz for some interesting problems and try and
work them (Honestly, I need to do that :D)

Having said that, I think you already have a good start by looking at some
of the existing code bases. I think you need to find a balance between
reading and writing. Reading will help you pick up a nuance (or a trick) in
the language that most books will not cover, writing will help you instill
it.

Another approach is pick up a book like Practical Ruby Projects [
http://tinyurl.com/3zrqbr], or something like Project Euler [
http://projecteuler.net/]. I personally find it hard to make up problems
unless they have a personal motive, so such books and sites help. Another
one is 99 Lisp problems (Just google it).

One way to try and understand Ruby well is to write unit tests. Take a
class, say String, and write unit tests for all of its methods! Its
painstaking, but its a lot of fun, and you will get to know Ruby intimately.


Sorry if I confused you even more than you were, but I do a bit of all of
the above. Its just what I am in the mood for. Spend an hour reading Rails
code coz I cant seem to figure out what its doing, then write some Ruby code
for a module. Getting bored, jump on to a problem I am trying to solve on
Eulers, then realize I dont understand how a particular method in
Enumberable works, so write some unit tests.

Hope this helps.

Happy Hacking.

Raju

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 7:18 AM, Tim Hunter <TimHunter@nc.rr.com> wrote:

> Albert Schlef wrote:
>
> > I'm a very experienced programmer, but I'm new to ruby.
> >
> > I've studied the grammar of the language already, I found it easy, and
> > I'm now looking for "good source code" that I can just read and learn
> > from.
> >
> > I already studied ruby-dbi's source code.
> >
> > I considered learning AcriveRecord, but maybe I should wait a bit with
> > this.
> >
> > My question, sort of, is: "What now?"
> >
> > I know it's a vague question. I'll ask it differently: "I've studied the
> > grammar. OK. And I'm a good programmer, probably. What should be my next
> > steps in Ruby? Should I look for a 'beautiful' package, like Rails, and
> > study it?"
> >
> > I'm somewhat at a loss.
> >
>
> Welcome to Ruby!
>
> Two things. Well, three. No, four:
>
> 1. Check out the Ruby Quiz archives at www.rubyquiz.com. Lots of good code
> there.
>
> 2. Don't just read Ruby, write Ruby. Studying Ruby is one thing,
> experiencing Ruby something entirely different. But you knew that already.
>
> 3. Hang around. This is a great community with lots of great ideas,
> experienced and talented programmers, and hot debates.
>
> 4. Interact. Post your code. Ask questions. Answer questions.
>
> Good luck!
>
> --
> RMagick: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/
> RMagick 2: http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/rmagick2.html
>
>


-- 
Raju

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