From: john maclean Date: 2009-04-13T13:40:08+09:00 Subject: Re: newbie confusion and dejection 2009/4/13 Bill Kelly : > > From: "Reg" >> >> When I learn a language I usually manage to cobble together a simple >> hello world type of executable app or script and build on my mistakes >> from there. but I cannot work out how to do this or get a ruby script >> running. > > I'm not trying to discourage you from learning Rails, but > you may be interested to know there are equally powerful > alternatives. > > Take a look at how simple it is to get a "Hello, World" > app going in Ramaze: > > http://ramaze.net/learn/getting-started > > I realize this just boils down to personal preference, but > I never liked the way Rails likes to generate a skeleton > of dozens of files when beginning a new app. > > In contrast, frameworks like Ramaze let you start simple, > and add complexity when you decide you need it. > > > Regards, > > Bill > > > > This is going to sound silly but until I got into unit testing I could never really think about what _I_ wanted to do but had to think about __how__ to do it. Mike Clark has writen an excellent guide to unit testing [0] and it's a bloody fast way to actually learn Ruby from the ground up. Before: /me: OK. I can use ri --this and ri --that but now I am ri Bored::shitless of all of this documentation. I want to start actually writing stuff but keep having to think about how it's done. after: /me: kapow! shazaam. Now I can test what I know. I'll see where my stuff goes wrong. Ah. So __that's__ how you use an array, huh? Take that! kaplow! So that's what you mean by regexp? So I think that I can get an IP address like this /\d+\d+\d+\d+/. and I can now test bits of my code whilst I am thinking about what I want to do. That make sense? [0] http://clarkware.com/cgi/blosxom/Ruby?_start=6 -- John Maclean 07739 171 531 MSc (DIC) Timezone: GMT