It's been almost three years since I began spending nearly every available evening and weekend learning code and web dev. It's been a great adventure. However, contrary to the advice I was given I believe Ruby on Rails is not an effective place to start learning web dev, it certainly wasn't for me.
When I started, I had limited knowledge of HTML and almost no experience with CSS, Javascript, SQL or HTTP. I felt bombarded going through Michael Hartl's book (ruby.railstutorial.org), for example, trying to pick up all the concepts mentioned above plus the ideas of Unit Testing, ActiveRecord, the MVC paradigm, Rake, GIT, Migrations, layouts, partials and UNIX, to name a few. Nothing was sticking.
After now learning some programming fundamentals through an awesome Coursera course, learning C++ and Python to make small game mechanic, digging into PHP and launching a few fun websites, building a few projects with raw HTML and CSS while having lots of fun with jQuery and Javascript I feel I am ready for and can appreciate Rails. I'm now approximately 4-6 months from launching my first commercial product and this book will be perfect for my current purposes. I'm 25 pages in and can say that I love it's narrow focus (not including unit tests, for example) and also it's thorough explanation of all core concepts. I've backed the Kickstarter and can't to keep learning! Sorry for the long post HN! Long time lurker, big fan.
I agree with this 100% - I too had Michael Hartl's book recommended to me as I was just starting to learn web development, and I found it very daunting. One year later, I now understand a lot of these things with ease, but it definitely is not a good resource for those trying to get into web development.
I haven't checked out this book yet, and I suspect I probably won't get a huge amount out of it since I am comfortable digging into source code of whatever tech to understand libraries. I do think more good resources for learning web development is a plus though, so thanks to the author for making this available for free!
That's interesting to hear. I'm a system administrator and would like to learn web development. I was planning on starting with Rails. I know the basics of HTML and CSS and am pretty experienced with SQL. Do you have a route of learning you recommend?
If you have experience with SQL you might be far better off than I was. Try starting with the book in this thread; it seems like an excellent starter book and covers many concepts that frankly, myself and others had to piece together from Stack Overflow questions.
The best advice I can give you is to start with a project; what do you want to make? If you're set on Rails, jump into Ruby using the nice online book Learn Ruby the Hard Way. Consider checking out Rails for Zombies for a nice, fun intro into Rails and then dive into the book listed in this thread.
Best of luck! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
When I started, I had limited knowledge of HTML and almost no experience with CSS, Javascript, SQL or HTTP. I felt bombarded going through Michael Hartl's book (ruby.railstutorial.org), for example, trying to pick up all the concepts mentioned above plus the ideas of Unit Testing, ActiveRecord, the MVC paradigm, Rake, GIT, Migrations, layouts, partials and UNIX, to name a few. Nothing was sticking.
After now learning some programming fundamentals through an awesome Coursera course, learning C++ and Python to make small game mechanic, digging into PHP and launching a few fun websites, building a few projects with raw HTML and CSS while having lots of fun with jQuery and Javascript I feel I am ready for and can appreciate Rails. I'm now approximately 4-6 months from launching my first commercial product and this book will be perfect for my current purposes. I'm 25 pages in and can say that I love it's narrow focus (not including unit tests, for example) and also it's thorough explanation of all core concepts. I've backed the Kickstarter and can't to keep learning! Sorry for the long post HN! Long time lurker, big fan.