New to Programming and Confused!

Ruby
1

Okay, I have finished ruby tutorials and stuff and I believe i am ready
to start practicing on my own.
I have Notepad++ and ruby installed but what now?
I can make and write .rb files but how does that form a program? A .exe?

Also have the same question(sorta) about Rails. What is the “anatomy” of
a ruby-written program and a web app written with ROR?

P.S. I have no experience in programming in any language.

2

Good morning,

I recommend you to visit www.rubylearning.org and choose a (free)
course. That is a comfortable way to really begin.

Then, I want to point out a contradiction in your message, that you
would have to resolve in one way or other, on your own. If you hope for
more input in this forum, you should do it rapidly.

Axxooss … wrote in post #1161789:

Okay, I have finished ruby tutorials and stuff and I believe i am ready
to start practicing on my own.

then:

I can make and write .rb files but how does that form a program? A .exe?

We all have finished some tutorial or other. But if the conclusion is,
that you still do not know the answer to the other question, we can all
unanimously tell you, that you are not ready to start practising on your
own and that those tutorials that you have read should be forbidden and
burned.

3

Start with Ruby, take RoR later. A way to build an *.exe is to use ocra,
is a gem, look at it in rubygems.org, works only with Windows. If you
are thinking about graphic user interface applications you should take a
look at the availables now, google “rubytools”, enter the site and look
for GUI frameworks, I’ve been using a lot FXRuby and works for me, I
made big applications with that. Cheers.

4

Axxooss … wrote in post #1161789:

Okay, I have finished ruby tutorials and stuff and I believe i am ready
to start practicing on my own.
I have Notepad++ and ruby installed but what now?
I can make and write .rb files but how does that form a program? A .exe?

Also have the same question(sorta) about Rails. What is the “anatomy” of
a ruby-written program and a web app written with ROR?

P.S. I have no experience in programming in any language.

I would highly recommend you start off with a beginners BOOK, and not
online tutorials. I’m a self taught programmer and whenever starting out
with a new language/framework/technology i always get a book for it.
Books are much better at giving you the fundamental building blocks, and
teaching you best practices in a structured, progressive kind of way.

Online tutorials give you a false sense of confidence. They teach you
some quick hacks but often leave major essential gaps in your
understanding. You want to learn things right because bad habits can be
hard to break. Programming is not just - type this/get this. Programming
is a creative thought process. You want to learn how to think like a
programmer not just hack stuff together.

…this horse sure is high :wink:

5

Thanks guys!

6

What a correct expression masta Blasta, I totally agree with you.

7

I would highly recommend you start off with a beginners BOOK, and not
online tutorials. I’m a self taught programmer and whenever starting out

Will downloading a .pdf book and reading it help? Because I do it that
way.

And for OP required answers are already there so I’m just going to tell
you something else.

I’m also a beginner just like you, maybe I have bit more experience than
you because I’ve been coding for a year or so but that does not really
matter.

I’m posting this because I’m working on a project so if you’d like to
join, we can work and learn together. I hate coding alone -__-’

Well the project is about creating a chat bot.

Send me an e-mail on [email protected] if you’re interested.

8

Different people learn best in different ways, or in combinations of
different ways. I generally prefer books myself, but if you want a
course, I second the recommendation for the seven-week “Core Ruby”
course at rubylearning.org. I see there’s a new one starting Nov. 15. It
is unlike other online courses is that there is a course leader and
several mentors who volunteer their time to give students one-on-one
help. The course is not free, but neither is it expensive ($45).

No matter what you do, make sure you have a copy of the “Pickaxe”, which
I think most Rubyists regard as the most authoritative, complete and
up-to-date reference at the present time:

Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0: The Pragmatic Programmers’ Guide (The Facets
of Ruby) Jul 7, 2013 by Dave T. and Andy H…

Also from good (what I learned Ruby from), but only covers up to Ruby
v.1.9 only, is:

The Ruby P.ming Language, Feb 1, 2008
by David Flanagan and Yukihiro M.’

9

Cary Swoveland wrote in post #1161981:

The course is not free, but neither is it expensive ($45).

If that is valid now for the core Ruby course, I take back my
recommendation further up. Money changes everything and whatever had
been special about rubylearning.org will be lost in no time.

This is sad news.

10

Michael U. wrote in post #1162002:
…

The course is not free, but neither is it expensive ($45).

If that is valid now for the core Ruby course, I take back my
recommendation further up. Money changes everything and whatever had
been special about rubylearning.org will be lost in no time.

This is sad news.

There has been a nominal fee for several years. It’s a pittance, used to
defray expenses. Where else are you going to find a high-quality,
seven-week course with three or four highly-qualified instructors for
$45? I see it as a fantastic bargain.

11

Michael U. wrote in post #1162002:
…

The course is not free, but neither is it expensive ($45).

If that is valid now for the core Ruby course, I take back my
recommendation further up. Money changes everything and whatever had
been special about rubylearning.org will be lost in no time.

This is sad news.

There has been a nominal fee for several years. It’s a pittance, used to
defray expenses. Where else are you going to find a high-quality,
seven-week, ad-free course with three or four highly-qualified
instructors for $45? I see it as a fantastic bargain. I confess I’ve
never understood the “if-it’s-not-free-it’s-bad” mentality. Somehow the
bills have to get paid. I think the students are happy to pay a small
fee to avoid having ads shoved in their faces.

12

This is the best Ruby course. I’m going to take it again.

13

Cary Swoveland wrote in post #1162015:

I confess I’ve
never understood the “if-it’s-not-free-it’s-bad” mentality. Somehow the
bills have to get paid. I think the students are happy to pay a small
fee to avoid having ads shoved in their faces.

Why do you make this connection. It is certainly not in response to my
own message further above, so who or what are you referring to? What is
my mentality, if I am erring and cannot understand what you mean?

I have been an “assistent-teacher”, “mentor” or whatever on quite some
courses on rubylearning.org and never never never gave my vote for going
commercial, anyway. I confess I’ve never understood the “if it doesn’t
earn you money it’s of no use” mentality, nor the one of people who seek
investing their money for stuff that they should have for free in a
normal world… but then again, this may be the core-problem.

Good luck with trying to avoid the walls.