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Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails for beginners?

10 points by gamechangr 15y ago

Ruby seems easy, but learning more about these takes time. MVC, REST, Migrations, Database abstraction, Routing, Is this a good language for beginners?

bartonfink 15y ago
You'll have to deal with all those concepts regardless of language, so it really doesn't matter. Java, for example, uses all of those concepts in popular frameworks (Spring, Play, Hibernate) and it's quite a different language than Ruby. Lots of people make noise about language and frameworks, but software development is really about abstractions and concepts. If you know, roughly speaking, what an ORM needs to do, then it's not too much work to pick up another one if you need to switch to another. Understanding the concepts is key - the implementations are just window dressing.
- gamechangr 15y ago
  That's quite comforting actually!
cicloid 15y ago
TL;DR: http://interestingman.in/#!/ruby-on-rails-for-beginners http://interestingman.in/#!/ruby-on-rails-for-beginners RoR, or any kind of Web Development requires a big deal of earlier know-how. Learning How to program is easy, seeing the big picture and how everything fits together, not so much.
tptacek 15y ago
Empirically yes. A good fraction of all the enmity the "Rails development community" attracts is due to the number of Rails programmers who are really just HTML web site developers who know enough syntax to use ActiveRecord as if it was MS Access. Can you figure out MS Access? You'll do fine with Rails.
- gamechangr 15y ago
  I have met a handful of noobs learning RoR and the portrait that you paint is really accurate. HTML Developers who don't quite have a handle on what is happening under the hood. MS Access is easy. thanks for the post
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jandy 15y ago
I'm currently teaching a complete beginner how to program. She's interested in the web, but I was concerned about the breadth of RoR; instead we've gone with Sinatra, which seems to be much easier to swallow. It's much closer to the metal, and has considerably less moving parts than RoR. It's working out pretty well so far.
- gamechangr 15y ago
  I have heard that starting with Sinatra is the answer. Your answer is my confirmation. glad it works
- korussian 15y ago
  Could you please suggest the best way to get started with Sinatra for a beginner who just knows HTML/CSS? Most Sinatra tutorials I've found seem to deal either with very specific hacker-interest cases ("How to combine Sinatra with x to do y better") or teach you how to do specific basic stuff and then stop short, promising more tutorials later. I'm looking for something that takes me from Part 1 to Part 10, so that I can really learn to use Sinatra to make cool stuff that average people would like. Maybe this means one source, or maybe a list of multiple sources in order. It would be great to get a list like: 1. Read this 2. Read that 3. Try this 4. Now you can do that 5. Get really good at #4, then read this
  - gamechangr 15y ago
    I'm facing the same issue. It looks like there are plenty of those "roadmaps" for Rails, but not much for Sinatra. I think the community assumes a higher level of learning. I've started working on Sinatra with friends. Let me know if you land the information, I couldn't fast enough-so went to people instead of the web.
j2pro 15y ago
I would suggest reading these two articles: http://rob.yurkowski.net/post/17610425880/rails-is-definitely-not-for-beginners http://rob.yurkowski.net/post/17610425880/rails-is-definitel... Best way to Learn Ruby & Rails http://astonj.com/tech/best-way-to-learn-ruby-rails/ http://astonj.com/tech/best-way-to-learn-ruby-rails/

10 points by gamechangr 15y ago

Ruby seems easy, but learning more about these takes time. MVC, REST, Migrations, Database abstraction, Routing, Is this a good language for beginners?

bartonfink 15y ago

You'll have to deal with all those concepts regardless of language, so it really doesn't matter. Java, for example, uses all of those concepts in popular frameworks (Spring, Play, Hibernate) and it's quite a different language than Ruby. Lots of people make noise about language and frameworks, but software development is really about abstractions and concepts. If you know, roughly speaking, what an ORM needs to do, then it's not too much work to pick up another one if you need to switch to another. Understanding the concepts is key - the implementations are just window dressing.

gamechangr 15y ago
That's quite comforting actually!

cicloid 15y ago

TL;DR: http://interestingman.in/#!/ruby-on-rails-for-beginners http://interestingman.in/#!/ruby-on-rails-for-beginners RoR, or any kind of Web Development requires a big deal of earlier know-how. Learning How to program is easy, seeing the big picture and how everything fits together, not so much.

tptacek 15y ago

Empirically yes. A good fraction of all the enmity the "Rails development community" attracts is due to the number of Rails programmers who are really just HTML web site developers who know enough syntax to use ActiveRecord as if it was MS Access. Can you figure out MS Access? You'll do fine with Rails.

gamechangr 15y ago
I have met a handful of noobs learning RoR and the portrait that you paint is really accurate. HTML Developers who don't quite have a handle on what is happening under the hood. MS Access is easy. thanks for the post

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jandy 15y ago

I'm currently teaching a complete beginner how to program. She's interested in the web, but I was concerned about the breadth of RoR; instead we've gone with Sinatra, which seems to be much easier to swallow. It's much closer to the metal, and has considerably less moving parts than RoR. It's working out pretty well so far.

gamechangr 15y ago
I have heard that starting with Sinatra is the answer. Your answer is my confirmation. glad it works
korussian 15y ago
Could you please suggest the best way to get started with Sinatra for a beginner who just knows HTML/CSS? Most Sinatra tutorials I've found seem to deal either with very specific hacker-interest cases ("How to combine Sinatra with x to do y better") or teach you how to do specific basic stuff and then stop short, promising more tutorials later. I'm looking for something that takes me from Part 1 to Part 10, so that I can really learn to use Sinatra to make cool stuff that average people would like. Maybe this means one source, or maybe a list of multiple sources in order. It would be great to get a list like: 1. Read this 2. Read that 3. Try this 4. Now you can do that 5. Get really good at #4, then read this
- gamechangr 15y ago
  I'm facing the same issue. It looks like there are plenty of those "roadmaps" for Rails, but not much for Sinatra. I think the community assumes a higher level of learning. I've started working on Sinatra with friends. Let me know if you land the information, I couldn't fast enough-so went to people instead of the web.

j2pro 15y ago

I would suggest reading these two articles: http://rob.yurkowski.net/post/17610425880/rails-is-definitely-not-for-beginners http://rob.yurkowski.net/post/17610425880/rails-is-definitel... Best way to Learn Ruby & Rails http://astonj.com/tech/best-way-to-learn-ruby-rails/ http://astonj.com/tech/best-way-to-learn-ruby-rails/