3 ms·

If you were to contribute to rails today, and you knew nothing about rails, How would you exactly go about it? 1. Learn Ruby to a good level where you can und

by evex 8y ago

If you were to contribute to rails today, and you knew nothing about rails, How would you exactly go about it? 1. Learn Ruby to a good level where you can understand (almost) any ruby code? if yes, is there any tutorial or book you recommend? 2. Learn Rails to understand all the different parts of it? 3. Or would you just go on and start reading the rails quick start guide, and then get immediately to reading all of the issues on github and start contributing to the docs first and work your way up from there? Thanks :)

steveklabnik 8y ago
I would get reasonably proficient at Ruby before tackling Rails; Rails uses Ruby to its full extent, and so you'll need the chops to know what's going on. Or at least, you used to. I imagine it's the same today. The best book for leveling up your Ruby is "Metaprogramming Ruby". Yes, it's technically a book about metaprogramming, but in order to metaprogram, you need to learn about how Ruby really works. In my mind, if you don't grok what's in that book, you're still new at Ruby (which is okay!), and once you do, you're intermediate/advanced. Before that, the classics like the Pickaxe are good for getting started. From there, I personally would go the "pick an issue and dig in" route; there's a lot to learn, and so having a reason to learn about a specific part of the project is a good way to get going. If you hit a wall, pick another issue.
- evex 8y ago
  > Now, being as outdated as it is, it can no more be treated as one. Relatively "small" changes were made to Ruby since 2.0, but those changes are everywhere, and they seriously reshaped the language, preferred style, common patterns, and solution. So, one being introduced to language through Pickaxe will immediately be in possession of outdated knowledge. source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/82ubtj/is_it_still_worth_reading_the_pickaxe_manual/dvdbqir/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/82ubtj/is_it_still_wo... I see Picaxe outdated? do you have another resource just to not learn the outdated stuff?
  - steveklabnik 8y ago
    Interesting! I had not heard that. Maybe I myself am becoming outdated :)
    - evex 8y ago
      So I think I have to learn ruby the hard way, through outdated sources, ruby's latest version is 2.5.0 right now, I'll be learning through source on 2.0 and 2.1.0 please tell me if you have a better alternative or if it even matters to learn the latest ruby.
      - zedeks48K 8y ago
        The Well Grounded Rubyist is a wonderful resource and the third edition, released this August, covers Ruby 2.5. https://www.manning.com/books/the-well-grounded-rubyist-third-edition https://www.manning.com/books/the-well-grounded-rubyist-thir... * Sorry, it seems it's going to be released on January 2019. In any case, the second edition covers Ruby 2.1. It's safe to learn with that one.

by evex 8y ago

steveklabnik 8y ago

I would get reasonably proficient at Ruby before tackling Rails; Rails uses Ruby to its full extent, and so you'll need the chops to know what's going on. Or at least, you used to. I imagine it's the same today. The best book for leveling up your Ruby is "Metaprogramming Ruby". Yes, it's technically a book about metaprogramming, but in order to metaprogram, you need to learn about how Ruby really works. In my mind, if you don't grok what's in that book, you're still new at Ruby (which is okay!), and once you do, you're intermediate/advanced. Before that, the classics like the Pickaxe are good for getting started. From there, I personally would go the "pick an issue and dig in" route; there's a lot to learn, and so having a reason to learn about a specific part of the project is a good way to get going. If you hit a wall, pick another issue.

evex 8y ago
> Now, being as outdated as it is, it can no more be treated as one. Relatively "small" changes were made to Ruby since 2.0, but those changes are everywhere, and they seriously reshaped the language, preferred style, common patterns, and solution. So, one being introduced to language through Pickaxe will immediately be in possession of outdated knowledge. source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/82ubtj/is_it_still_worth_reading_the_pickaxe_manual/dvdbqir/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ruby/comments/82ubtj/is_it_still_wo... I see Picaxe outdated? do you have another resource just to not learn the outdated stuff?
- steveklabnik 8y ago
  Interesting! I had not heard that. Maybe I myself am becoming outdated :)
  - evex 8y ago
    So I think I have to learn ruby the hard way, through outdated sources, ruby's latest version is 2.5.0 right now, I'll be learning through source on 2.0 and 2.1.0 please tell me if you have a better alternative or if it even matters to learn the latest ruby.
    - zedeks48K 8y ago
      The Well Grounded Rubyist is a wonderful resource and the third edition, released this August, covers Ruby 2.5. https://www.manning.com/books/the-well-grounded-rubyist-third-edition https://www.manning.com/books/the-well-grounded-rubyist-thir... * Sorry, it seems it's going to be released on January 2019. In any case, the second edition covers Ruby 2.1. It's safe to learn with that one.