5 ms·

While this is an interesting case (having done the Treehouse tutorial myself), I've got to say that you can't beat Michael Hartl's book for a decent intro to wo

While this is an interesting case (having done the Treehouse tutorial myself), I've got to say that you can't beat Michael Hartl's book for a decent intro to working with Rails.

sergiotapia 14y ago
I disagree. It's good to read bits and pieces here and there, but he deviates too much into Git, Github, Heroku, Unit Testing, etc. I want to learn Rails and Ruby. An already hard enough task. There's no reason to smash my face into so many new concepts at once. -Source: Myself when I starting out with Rails. A much better source I found is the book Agile Web Development with Rails from Pragmatic Programmer Bookshelf: http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-r... Starts with dumb, .html.erb files, for static HTML, then slowly builds up on previous lessons - WITHOUT GOING TOO MUCH OFF TANGENT. Unit tests, rspec! the second coming! yada yada. I wanted to learn Rails, most newbie want that as well.
- jasonshen 14y ago
  Hey sergiotapia, thanks for sharing your thoughts! What did you think about the top review on Amazon to this book? http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Development-Rails-Pragmatic-Programmers/dp/1934356549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360106887&sr=8-1&keywords=Agile+Web+Development+with+Rails+%284th+edition%29 http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Development-Rails-Pragmatic-Prog... One must work hard to grasp what is being taught. It requires a lot of motivation, reviewing and double checking. Too much is given at once, in the wrong order and with little explanation (if any). Too much is left open. Proper subject matter review for a consistent explanation isn't available.There is a summary at the end of each chapter, but it is as a statement of goals "achieved" and not an explanation. I could list many examples. One can easily get lost following (or trying to follow...) the book. It can be a real pain.
- hipsters_unite 14y ago
  The Hartl tutorial does start with static pages (in fact I believe that's actually the name of Chapter 3), but fair play - I hear good things about the Prag Prog book too.
- jaredmcateer 14y ago
  As a rails newbie I found the integration of all the tools I use, git with remotely tracked branches, unit testing, deploying to a production server, etc to be a refreshing reprieve from sites that give you the basics of one thing and one thing only and no clue how to put them together with the other aspects of my job. The ramp up on Hartl rails tutorial was perfectly paced in my opinion.
bdcravens 14y ago
While they're far from comprehensive, I've found the tutorial approach at CodeSchool.com to be well worth the $. (With the basic Rub, Rails, and Git tutorials being free)

While this is an interesting case (having done the Treehouse tutorial myself), I've got to say that you can't beat Michael Hartl's book for a decent intro to working with Rails.

sergiotapia 14y ago

I disagree. It's good to read bits and pieces here and there, but he deviates too much into Git, Github, Heroku, Unit Testing, etc. I want to learn Rails and Ruby. An already hard enough task. There's no reason to smash my face into so many new concepts at once. -Source: Myself when I starting out with Rails. A much better source I found is the book Agile Web Development with Rails from Pragmatic Programmer Bookshelf: http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-r... Starts with dumb, .html.erb files, for static HTML, then slowly builds up on previous lessons - WITHOUT GOING TOO MUCH OFF TANGENT. Unit tests, rspec! the second coming! yada yada. I wanted to learn Rails, most newbie want that as well.

jasonshen 14y ago
Hey sergiotapia, thanks for sharing your thoughts! What did you think about the top review on Amazon to this book? http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Development-Rails-Pragmatic-Programmers/dp/1934356549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360106887&sr=8-1&keywords=Agile+Web+Development+with+Rails+%284th+edition%29 http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Development-Rails-Pragmatic-Prog... One must work hard to grasp what is being taught. It requires a lot of motivation, reviewing and double checking. Too much is given at once, in the wrong order and with little explanation (if any). Too much is left open. Proper subject matter review for a consistent explanation isn't available.There is a summary at the end of each chapter, but it is as a statement of goals "achieved" and not an explanation. I could list many examples. One can easily get lost following (or trying to follow...) the book. It can be a real pain.
hipsters_unite 14y ago
The Hartl tutorial does start with static pages (in fact I believe that's actually the name of Chapter 3), but fair play - I hear good things about the Prag Prog book too.
jaredmcateer 14y ago
As a rails newbie I found the integration of all the tools I use, git with remotely tracked branches, unit testing, deploying to a production server, etc to be a refreshing reprieve from sites that give you the basics of one thing and one thing only and no clue how to put them together with the other aspects of my job. The ramp up on Hartl rails tutorial was perfectly paced in my opinion.

bdcravens 14y ago

While they're far from comprehensive, I've found the tutorial approach at CodeSchool.com to be well worth the $. (With the basic Rub, Rails, and Git tutorials being free)