Ruby Aura by *Tom* via Flickr
I’ve set out to learn Ruby and eventually Ruby on Rails so that I can better integrate with the programming team.
I’ve programmed in perl and php before though I have never reached a level where I felt I had mastered them. There is a belief that you need to practice an art (and programming is both a science and an art) consistently for ten years before you can truly master it. As someone who spent almost 8 hours a day in Illustrator 8/OS9 for a year, and only partly mastered the sub-set needed to create perfect signs, I do believe it is close to the truth. So I may not ever truly master Ruby either.
However, like Perl, Ruby intrigues me. From what I’ve learnt about it, it is both an elegant language and a practical language. I’ve always had a soft spot for languages and tools that get things done easily. I would pick php over java, perl over python, wordpress over drupal for this reason.
I’m approaching Learning Ruby in three ways:
- I’ve signed up for a online Ruby course
- I’m reading a fine book by Chris Pine
- I’m planning out the programs I am hoping to write, once I have the basic toolkit of Ruby, Shoes and Ruby on Rails learnt
The 3rd point is probably key, in that it gives me both targets (I can check to see if my knowledge is enough to write program A on the list) and practice which is the way I can ingrain the knowledge I or my mentors have input into the grey mass residing in my head. I reckon I need to write about 50 programs (some trival, some mildly taxing) from scratch before I get to the level I want to be.
The next post in the series will be about how I am getting on with the online class and the partial list of exercise programs I have compiled for myself.