# Help? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 10, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help/125638 "2008-01-10T21:34:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brooklynboy3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help/125638/1 "2008-01-10T21:34:49Z")
I suspect this might be a painful question but as one who has never programmed, I am hoping to attempt to teach myself how to do it. A fool’s errand perhaps but one can always hope. I was told by a programming friend of mine that Ruby on Rails is probably the best thing to begin with… I went to the site but I can see that is not nearly as simple as simply downloading a software program, doing an install and following a manual until it is “mastered.” I know that no one can tell me what to do in an e-mail but is there any way I might get a hint as to where and how to begin? All the best, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brooklynboy3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help/125638/2 "2008-01-10T21:41:21Z")
The way I got started on it was I found something that I wanted to program, a blog. I’d already written it in PHP and I wanted to port it over to Ruby on Rails. There’s a few handy tutorial sites out there, one that gets thrown around a bit is Ryan B.’ Railscasts: [http://railscasts.com](http://railscasts.com) As for a manual, you can go to [http://noobkit.com](http://noobkit.com) and type in a method or class and you’ll get all the documentation on that item. See if your programming friend can take some time off to teach you the basics too. On Jan 11, 2008 7:03 AM, Brooklynboy3 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I know that no one can tell me what to do in an e-mail but is there > any way I might get a hint as to where and how to begin? > > All the best, > > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > > > – Ryan B. > **[frozenplague.net](http://www.frozenplague.net)** > > This domain may be for sale! Feel free to add me to MSN and/or GTalk as this email. ---
**Author:** ![Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brooklynboy3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help/125638/3 "2008-01-10T22:15:30Z")
On Jan 10, 2008, at 12:33 PM, Brooklynboy3 wrote: > I know that no one can tell me what to do in an e-mail but is there > any way I might get a hint as to where and how to begin? > > All the best, Can I recommend that you get Ruby installed ([Ruby Programming Language](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/))? If you are on a Mac, then it already is installed. If on a PC, use the one-click installer at [Download Ruby](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/). You want Ruby 1.8.6 at this point, because 1.9 is still a _development_ release. Once you have it installed, and this implies that you have first figured out how to get a command line window going, get to your command prompt and type: irb You should be met with a prompt something like: > > That means irb is ready for you to use so you can interactively experiment with Ruby. You’ll want to read the PickAxe ([http://whytheluckystiff.net/ruby/pickaxe/](http://whytheluckystiff.net/ruby/pickaxe/) ). That will help you learn a bit more about programming with Ruby. I truly believe that if you have _never_ programmed, you should get a bit of the programming\_fu out of the way by learning to count to 10 and junk like that before you tackle database schema and connections, templating languages, and so on. If you have programmed and are just picking up something new, I apologize for the simplistic approach recommended. Again, if you haven’t programmed, then Ruby is not a bad place to start; you should, however learn the language before attempting to use it in a larger context. Just my $.02 ---
**Author:** ![Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Brooklynboy3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Brooklynboy3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 10:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/help/125638/4 "2008-01-10T22:54:54Z")
There is a wonderful book called “Learn to Program” by Chris P. that gives a newcomer a good introduction to programming, and it uses the Ruby language. That’s a great place to start.