# Getting started w/ Ruby on Rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 10, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083 "2006-08-10T16:01:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 4:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083/1 "2006-08-10T16:01:09Z")
Hi, I would like to get started with RoR, since it seems to be a terriffic platform for Webdevelopment. However, I’m unsure what “level” you need to be on in terms of programming to get started? Best regards, Gustav ---
**Author:** ![gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083/2 "2006-08-10T16:51:30Z")
Gustav wrote: > Hi, > I would like to get started with RoR, since it seems to be a terriffic > platform for Webdevelopment. However, I’m unsure what “level” you need > to be on in terms of programming to get started? > > Best regards, > Gustav Hey! Personally, i think ruby is one of the easiest languages to learn that i’ve seen. Its beautiful, elegant and stays out of your way. I’d recommend reading the Ruby Basics Appendix in the Agile Web Development with Rails book, then kick right off and work through the handbook! The first part of the book is a comprehensive tutorial that delves in deep on some really cool Rails features! I learnt sufficient Ruby from just going through the book and trying to make sense of the code snippets(luckily ruby reads easily and just reading the code outloud gives you a pretty good idea of what goes where). Afterwards, I took my time going through the (free) RubyBook (affectionately referred to as the pickaxe) and got to know Ruby a whole lot better, but in-depth knowledge of Ruby is definitely not a prerequisite to start coding Rails (thoughts anyone?). I’d think you need to know the basics of programming, understanding loops, if’s, etc. the Ruby syntax and the Rails implementation you learn soon enough. Anyway, I’m by no means a core contributer, but that’s my 5 cents worth. Ciao Gustav P. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083/3 "2006-08-10T16:50:53Z")
In order to get the most bank from the rails ‘buck’, I would suggest being cabable of working with various web technologies (html, css) and at least familiar with (javascript and database technologies) If you have done no structured programming before, start by learning about the Ruby language first. If you have, I would still start with Ruby to understand syntax and capabilities. That’s all you should need to make the leap! Good luck! Gustav wrote: > Hi, > I would like to get started with RoR, since it seems to be a terriffic > platform for Webdevelopment. However, I’m unsure what “level” you need > to be on in terms of programming to get started? > > Best regards, > Gustav ---
**Author:** ![gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 5:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083/4 "2006-08-10T17:35:00Z")
gustav Paul wrote: > think ruby is one of the easiest languages to learn that > i’ve seen. Its beautiful, elegant and stays out of your way. Agreed that the language syntax is easy to learn, but the language concepts are more difficult. A highly dynamic language like Ruby can do things that aren’t easily understood until you really do some mental gymnastics (functional programming basically). On the other hand, I hated learning Java because it was all about memorizing long API classifications, but the language itself was dead simple. I loved learning Ruby because of the amazingly concise and powerful code you can write. > I’d recommend reading the Ruby Basics Appendix in the Agile Web > Development with Rails book, then kick right off and work through the > handbook! Ruby on Rails is an excellent introduction to Ruby, because it lets you start doing things right away. It’s gonna be hard to just pick up a book and start programming unless you have some task you want to do in raw Ruby. Now some people come to RoR with no interest in learning Ruby at all, and I think they’re just fooling themselves. If you don’t really understand Ruby you’ll never make the most of Rails, but that doesn’t mean you have to learn Ruby first. In a way, it’s more exciting to discover later how Rails accomplishes some of its magic, and at that point you realize why Java or PHP can never have a true Rails clone. ---
**Author:** ![gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083/5 "2006-08-15T14:18:25Z")
Hey Gustav, Don’t worry about the “level” you need to be. In some ways the ruby language is easier to learn if that is what you start with. I came from php and I found that I had a hard time getting my head around it because I was so stuck in certain ways of thinking. Rails can be a bit mystifying because it does a lot for you that you don’t see, but as the others said, find a project and work through it. After a while things will come together. I was a bit intimidated at first because I had a few projects with time constraints, but I stuck with it and did them in rails and now I am really glad that I did. Good luck, Jake ---
**Author:** ![gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083/6 "2006-08-15T14:19:25Z")
On 8/13/06, Ben L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I would say that as long as you have patience, you can learn rails no matter > what your programming level is. Also, though it would probably be a good > idea to start with learning Ruby first (as many have suggested), I would > have to say that would probably bore me to death. If you don’t mind putting > in the time, go with Ruby first. I keep seeing this suggestion and have actually taken it to practice. However I think it some ways in put a person who wants to primarily use Rails in a quandry. I’ve read through the Pickaxe and a number of other Ruby books but it seems that in order to really learn it you have to put it to practice. Meaning it’s probably a good idea to write a few Ruby programs standalone, integrate some of it’s gems and maybe even participate in some of the Ruby Q. entries. Learning Rails at the same time can be a bit overwhelming. I mean the amount of methods alone in AR and AC. > Also, I disagree with the others that Rails is easy to learn. Sometimes one > line of code will do many different things all at once, and it takes awhile > to catch the nuances of the code - as opposed to other languages, such as > php, where there is usually only one thing happening on one line and it is > very clear what it is. Along with the line of thought above you also need to view code in the MVC model. Which for someone new to both Ruby and Rails can be somewhat confusing. I know it is to me. Stuart ---
**Author:** ![gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gustav](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gustav)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-started-w-ruby-on-rails/102083/7 "2006-08-15T14:18:57Z")
I would say that as long as you have patience, you can learn rails no matter what your programming level is. Also, though it would probably be a good idea to start with learning Ruby first (as many have suggested), I would have to say that would probably bore me to death. If you don’t mind putting in the time, go with Ruby first. Also, I disagree with the others that Rails is easy to learn. Sometimes one line of code will do many different things all at once, and it takes awhile to catch the nuances of the code - as opposed to other languages, such as php, where there is usually only one thing happening on one line and it is very clear what it is. But this is also the strength of Rails. Once you learn how things work, you can program much faster. It’s definitely (definitely!!!) worth the struggle. It took me about 8 weeks of working on a project, reading Agile Rails, and hitting the forums to become comfortable. The best advice I can give is to use this forum constantly. If something doesn’t make sense, don’t just go along with it, ask us. It will help you understand everything a whole lot faster. As soon as I started reading and posting to this list consistantly, my skills went up dramatically. Cheers, and welcome! -Ben L.