New to programming AND new to Ruby

Ruby
1

Hello. I am trying to teach myself Ruby. I have no background in
programming, or experience… only interest.

I have armed myself with Pragmatic Programmers Learn to Program, as well
as Koans. I am running into walls trying to learn these things myself,
because I get discouraged when there is no one to turn to when I have
any questions. I get stuck; I wander off. This is no good. Obviously
there is slow progression, when any.

The issue, then, is where do I turn when I have these (obviously simple)
questions? It seems both embarrassing and unnecessary to post on such a
place as this, for simple issues in learning (for example, getting stuck
on ruby koans).

Does anyone have a suggestion? Should I try to dig up a “Ruby mentor”,
so to speak? And how would one go about doing something like that?

-Cassandra

2

Would a study group of others working through the same book help.

After many years absence from the IT world I am currently trying to
kickstart my brain again by studying various subjects and am currently
working through the Prag Prog Learn to Program book myself.

Any others out there doing the same thing??/

kev

3

A study group sounds kind of cool. I’d be interested in that. I think
I’ll be pretty far behind, though, as I have no prior knowledge of any
sort of programming. I’m willing to give it my best, though.

4

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 3:57 AM, Cassandra K. [email protected]
wrote:

questions? It seems both embarrassing and unnecessary to post on such a

For questions about how Ruby methods work, keep the docs handy
RDoc Documentation and an IRB session open that you can try out
what
you read see what you think.

If that doesn’t solve your question, or if your question isn’t about how
some method / class works, then I recommend the IRC channel irc://
irc.freenode.net/ruby-lang
If you’re on a Mac, you can use Colloquy to get on IRC
http://colloquy.info/I don’t know what’s best for other OS’s, sorry
(though I just tried
http://webchat.freenode.net/ and it worked for me, in my Firefox
browser).

5

On Jan 31, 2011, at 3:57 AM, Cassandra K. wrote:

Hello. I am trying to teach myself Ruby. I have no background in
programming, or experience… only interest.

Good on you for learning new things. We all need to do more of that.
Welcome.

I have armed myself with Pragmatic Programmers Learn to Program, as well
as Koans. I am running into walls trying to learn these things myself,
because I get discouraged when there is no one to turn to when I have
any questions. I get stuck; I wander off. This is no good. Obviously
there is slow progression, when any.

My first suggestion is not to feel bad. It’s a lot to learn and it can
be pretty counter intuitive at times.

We all had those moments when we were learning to program. I definitely
doubted if I could ever do it at times.

It other words, everything you are experiencing is totally normal.

The issue, then, is where do I turn when I have these (obviously simple)
questions? It seems both embarrassing and unnecessary to post on such a
place as this, for simple issues in learning (for example, getting stuck
on ruby koans).

Don’t be afraid to ask things here. Very few of us bite. Most of us
try to be patient and polite. If you aim for the same, I bet you’ll be
surprised at how we can get you over the humps. We enjoy helping.

Should I try to dig up a “Ruby mentor”, so to speak? And how would one go about
doing something like that?

A mentor and/or study group sound like great ideas to me. Why suffer
alone when you can suffer with others? :slight_smile: Mentors can be a great
resource for helping you learn to think like a computer.

You might have a look at Ruby Mendicant University:

http://university.rubymendicant.com/

I believe it aims to help people in your position.

Don’t give up! Knowing you need help is a great sign!

James Edward G. II

6

Lets have a think about the best way to do this and what we want from it
while waiting to see if there is any interest from others.

7

You should check out the Railsbridge community (http://
railsbridge.org/)
As the name indicates it is Rails focused, however they have a lot of
resources and support
for those new to Ruby, and even new to programming, including
mentoring

Cheers

8

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 3:27 PM, Cassandra K. [email protected]
wrote:

Hello. I am trying to teach myself Ruby. I have no background in
programming, or experience… only interest.

Check out http://rubylearning.org/class/

martin

9

Kevin,
I have no Programming or Ruby Skills and I think if a study group is
formed I would to sign up for the help. I am having a hard time getting
ruby to download and working.
James

— On Mon, 1/31/11, Kevin R. [email protected] wrote:

From: Kevin R. [email protected]
Subject: Re: New to programming AND new to Ruby
To: “ruby-talk ML” [email protected]
Date: Monday, January 31, 2011, 4:49 AM

Would a study group of others working through the same book help.

After many years absence from the IT world I am currently trying to
kickstart my brain again by studying various subjects and am currently
working through the Prag Prog Learn to Program book myself.

Any others out there doing the same thing??/

kev

10

Hey James,
I can help you with installation of Ruby. So just let me know
what problems you are having in downloading/installation of Ruby.

Thanks,
Abhijit

–
A transistor protected by a fast acting fuse, will protect the fuse by
blowing first.

11

posting simple questions on here shouldn’t embarrass you, i do it all
the time. im 14, i did some c++ then tryed out java and then my friend
told me about ruby and here i am. the best thing about this forum is
that no one says oh you noob or your sooooo stupid. they give you a
honest answer and quite fast!

regards

-Dan-

12

I do not know, but I have a lot of questions but no one likes to explain
ruby or how to set it up. I have read the books Beginning Ruby or
Beginning Rails. but I guess you and I can try to help each other.
James

— On Mon, 1/31/11, Cassandra K. [email protected] wrote:

From: Cassandra K. [email protected]
Subject: New to programming AND new to Ruby
To: “ruby-talk ML” [email protected]
Date: Monday, January 31, 2011, 2:57 AM

Hello. I am trying to teach myself Ruby. I have no background in
programming, or experience… only interest.

I have armed myself with Pragmatic Programmers Learn to Program, as well
as Koans. I am running into walls trying to learn these things myself,
because I get discouraged when there is no one to turn to when I have
any questions. I get stuck; I wander off. This is no good. Obviously
there is slow progression, when any.

The issue, then, is where do I turn when I have these (obviously simple)
questions? It seems both embarrassing and unnecessary to post on such a
place as this, for simple issues in learning (for example, getting stuck
on ruby koans).

Does anyone have a suggestion? Should I try to dig up a “Ruby mentor”,
so to speak? And how would one go about doing something like that?

-Cassandra

13

be quiet noob (lol)

im in the same boat… except im 25 and making the transition to
programming from web design.

this is just more fun (and profitable). learn aggressively and it will
pay off.

Clent Crumley
Webmaster
Capitol Area Networks

From: Dan Lewis [[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 1:01 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: New to programming AND new to Ruby

posting simple questions on here shouldn’t embarrass you, i do it all
the time. im 14, i did some c++ then tryed out java and then my friend
told me about ruby and here i am. the best thing about this forum is
that no one says oh you noob or your sooooo stupid. they give you a
honest answer and quite fast!

regards

-Dan-