I just responded to the third e-mail in a week from friends asking me “How do I learn Ruby on Rails?” I’ve amassed a good collection of resources that are invaluable to anyone wanting to get on the proverbial train, and I figured it was wrong not to share it with everyone……so, here’s your ticket:
NOTE: All of the following links assume some programming knowledge. If you’re new to that too, check out Learn To Program, a wonderful intro to programming with Ruby
- First things first, download rails
- Step two, buy the book. I bought the PDF, and have gone through two home-printed copies while I’m waiting for the final verision to ship (should get here very soon!). The Depot example application will help you understand the underlying structure of Rails.
- If you’re new to Ruby as well, check out the pickaxe, a great free Ruby book.
- Check out the Ruby on Rails Wiki for tons of HowTo guides and community documentation. The search feature is helpful.
- The API reference is the epitome of
technical, but it sure is COMPREHENSIVE. Want to know if
ActiveRecord::Base\#\#Findreturns anArrayor aHash? This is the place to go.
- Snippets tagged as rails - Random rails code written by random people showcased on a website that was written on rails in less than 2 days. Lots of great code to steal, or use as inspiration.
- Check out the source code of typo the weblog engine I’m using on my blog. This is an excellent application, as well as excellent code to use for inspiration.
- Better yet, get a Textdrive hosting account and setup a Typo blog for yourself! Textdrive is the best webhost for Ruby on Rails. Seriously, $12 a month is cheap, and the support is great.
- #rubyonrails on irc.freenode.net is a great place to real people about Rails. Have a question that’s been bugging you? Ask one of the developers.
- Sign up for the Rails mailing list. It’s high traffic, but very good, and people share code on there frequently.
- Finally, immerse yourself in Rails. Read the links tagged as rails at del.icio.us, read the Ruby on Rails Weblog, and check out the lead developer’s blog. The Rails (and web development) community is rapidly changing, and it’s to your advantage to stay on top of it.
That should keep anyone who’s interested in Ruby on Rails occupied for at least, oh, say, a couple months.
NOTE: If you feel that any links should be added to or removed from this list, post a message in the comments.