From: Chad Perrin <code@...>
Date: 2011-12-13T13:52:19+09:00
Subject: Re: I need advice on what to do next.

On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 08:27:07AM +0900, Nathan Kossaeth wrote:
>
> I would like to do web programming, integration, and coding mainly.  I 
> have a descent budget and I can get a virtual box to set up Fedora( or 
> any other linux OS) if needed.  The books you recommended, are they 
> ebooks?  I am extremely dedicated to learning programming and I really 
> want to do this.  Do you have any suggestions on small projects I can do 
> to start out doing?

In my experience, using a Unix-like OS as one's primary working
environment really lends itself to finding opportunities to write small
programs that help one get things done, thus creating a naturally
encouraging environment for people learning to program.

The book Everyday Scripting With Ruby should be available as an ebook,
though I have not checked.  I have a hardcopy version of the book on my
shelf.  You might want to check the Pragmatic Programmers site to see if
they have it available for sale as an ebook.

The book Eloquent Ruby is definitely available as both an ebook and a
hardcopy book.  I bought the ebook for my Nook just before I adopted my
policy of only buying ebooks if the price represents enough of a discount
from the hardcopy book that it saves me the amount of money I might get
if I sold the hardcopy book to a used book store.  I'm glad I did,
because it is probably one of the top five programming books I have read.
That's a pretty tough category to break into, given the high quality of
many Ruby books.

For Web programming, you might try playing around with Ruby Web
frameworks like Rails and Sinatra.  Otherwise, I think learning to get
along with a Unix-like command line, and starting to use Ruby to automate
things you do every day there, could prove an excellent way to start
writing code regularly.  After working on small stuff like that, you will
probably start developing a lot of your own ideas for projects to
undertake.


> 
> One more thing, do you know of any other Ruby websites that would be of 
> help?  I was doing an internship at Rackspace and one of the ruby 
> developers gave me a lot of links and I didn't save them.  One of those 
> websites was a site where they give you a program that has an error in 
> it and you have to try to figure out the problem and fix it before you 
> go onto the next one.

There are sites that offer small tasks you can tackle for coding
practice, such as Ruby Quiz, Project Euler, and Programming Koans.  You
could try searching the Web for examples of programming tasks people talk
about using in job interviews, and implement those in Ruby as a way to
practice.  As already mentioned, Ruby Kickstart might be good, though I
do not have direct experience with it (yet).  If it's still around,
there's always Hackety-Hack.