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i also came out of a non-CS background. I don't recommend just looking at open source code. That would be like watching someone skiing to try to become a bett

i also came out of a non-CS background. I don't recommend just looking at open source code. That would be like watching someone skiing to try to become a better skier. The only way to get better at coding is by writing code. You want to get into a situation with a more experienced programmer who can mentor you when you get stuck and review your code.

confucius_cat 14y ago
I definitely agree about diving into development as the best source of mastering programming, and it's obviously my main method of learning; my question was not intended to come off as an avoidance of hands-on learning, but rather a way to find additional means to accelerate my learning. I have found extensive tutorials online, but they are both redundant and typically aimed at the fundamentals of rails. I constantly run into the advice of "read through code/documentation" but rarely am pointed in the direction of useful repositories to do this. After sifting through github for a bit, I found no easy way to figure out good codebases to read through. I think reading through code is a really valuable supplement to the learning process, especially when dealing with a framework like rails which is so heavily convention based. I find reading through code to be the quickest way of exposing myself to the standard idioms of rails based development.
- colm_h 14y ago
  This is a great question. I'm in basically the same position as you - no formal cs background but learning RoR and looking for resources to help me take it to the next level in terms of my coding and development skills. Have you heard of jumpstartlabs? They have an awesome series of tutorials on their site covering stuff like common design patterns to use and how to use workers for background jobs etc. Also, the project is open source so you can contribute to help improve the tutorials: http://tutorials.jumpstartlab.com http://tutorials.jumpstartlab.com

confucius_cat 14y ago

I definitely agree about diving into development as the best source of mastering programming, and it's obviously my main method of learning; my question was not intended to come off as an avoidance of hands-on learning, but rather a way to find additional means to accelerate my learning. I have found extensive tutorials online, but they are both redundant and typically aimed at the fundamentals of rails. I constantly run into the advice of "read through code/documentation" but rarely am pointed in the direction of useful repositories to do this. After sifting through github for a bit, I found no easy way to figure out good codebases to read through. I think reading through code is a really valuable supplement to the learning process, especially when dealing with a framework like rails which is so heavily convention based. I find reading through code to be the quickest way of exposing myself to the standard idioms of rails based development.

colm_h 14y ago
This is a great question. I'm in basically the same position as you - no formal cs background but learning RoR and looking for resources to help me take it to the next level in terms of my coding and development skills. Have you heard of jumpstartlabs? They have an awesome series of tutorials on their site covering stuff like common design patterns to use and how to use workers for background jobs etc. Also, the project is open source so you can contribute to help improve the tutorials: http://tutorials.jumpstartlab.com http://tutorials.jumpstartlab.com