# Newbie Blues **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [November 17, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-blues/153429 "2008-11-17T04:19:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-blues/153429/1 "2008-11-17T04:19:00Z")
Q) Why did the dinosaurs really become extinct? A) They ate their young… It is such a pity that the BEGINNING learning resources for RoR are now out of sync with the Applications… Trying to follow the [Linda.com](http://Linda.com) tutorials (which are very well presented for newcomers) and Agile Web Dev… we run into Rake error (fixed)… mysql default change to sqllite3 (fixed)… then database must now be created first (fixed)… then scaffolding issue (fixed)… now pagination… most common solution use 1.2.6 instead… download (OK)… change spec in environment.rb (yep no problem)… Whoops Webrick server now not working… Time spent on tutorial so far approx 45 mins… time spent trying to make up for the… “oh we don’t do it that way now… never heard of legacy before… who cares about people interested enough in the hype to check us out mentality” 12hours… hmmm something wrong there… Oh look daddy… there’s a T-Rex… yes honey unfortunately daddy is too busy building websites with those other languages at the moment to be be able to spend time watching… What will be really interesting is the response to this post… because for the 1 that speaks up there are 100+ silent… For the record… I really want RoR to be the accepted first stop for Web D… the possibilities are tremendous… but from the starting blocks it is NOT a straightforward path… So… Does anyone know of a simple, straightforward, BEGINNERS path to getting started that works with Rails 2+ Cheers ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-blues/153429/2 "2008-11-17T05:44:54Z")
The new Agile Web Dev. book that’s in beta covers Rails 2.x. Also, [http://guides.rails.info/](http://guides.rails.info/) is up to date and pretty thorough. –Jeremy On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 9:18 PM, gsv [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > common solution use 1.2.6 instead… download (OK)… change spec in > be be able to spend time watching… > > Cheers > > > – [http://jeremymcanally.com/](http://jeremymcanally.com/) [http://entp.com/](http://entp.com/) > **[Omg GIFs | GIFDB.com](https://gifdb.com/omg)** > > Download Omg GIFs for Free on GifDB. More than 56 Omg Animated GIFs to download. My books: > **[Ruby in Practice](https://www.manning.com/books/ruby-in-practice)** > > Like Ruby itself, Ruby in Practice will make you more productive. The book shows you practical techniques and strategies for small projects and large-scale environments. A cookbook-style reference, it gives you concrete examples of systems... [http://humblelittlerubybook.com/](http://humblelittlerubybook.com/) (FREE!) ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-blues/153429/3 "2008-11-17T07:13:10Z")
Thanks very much… I’ll give those a try… I have catalogued all teh steps down the path and what to avoid… Hopefully can get a fairly smooth “Beginners do these steps” down the track… Cheers On Nov 17, 3:44 pm, “Jeremy McAnally” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-blues/153429/4 "2008-11-17T06:53:53Z")
gsv wrote: > Q) Why did the dinosaurs really become extinct? A) They ate their > young… … > For the record… I really want RoR to be the accepted first stop for > Web D… the possibilities are tremendous… but from the > starting blocks it is NOT a straightforward path… > > So… Does anyone know of a simple, straightforward, BEGINNERS path to > getting started that works with Rails 2+ > > Cheers yeah, it can be frustrating. I was going to suggest a book, and then I found it was just 1.2. Rails 1.2+ was stepping stone to 2.x but I guess there are differences. I came across this: [Jump Start Rails | SitePoint Premium](http://www.sitepoint.com/books/rails2/) but I don’t know if it is good or not. Once you do get on the horse, you can then follow the changelogs ([Peak Obsession](http://weblog.rubyonrails.com/releases)) for each new release, see or download rails presentations, read blogs like Ryan’s Scraps (to name one) so you can see what’s changing. Even being on the horse can be frustrating though. I’m not comfortable with the plugin ecosystem - but I can’t justify why. I don’t like all the helper methods that rails provides that create an extra layer between you and what’s going on - but thankfully, they are just helper methods so you can pick and choose. Rails testing is brilliant, but you’ll find yourself on a treadmill going from TDD (the default) to BDD (rspec and friends). – Daniel B. ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-blues/153429/5 "2008-11-17T07:13:45Z")
Thanks, I will have a look at them… Again… For the record… in my short time around the RoR community I have found it to be VERY helpful compared to some others that I could mention… so it seems a land of contrasts to me… Brilliant stuff with “omg who in their right mind would ever do that” right next to it… maybe it isn’t but that’s first impressions for you… one thing is that it is “interesting” no matter which way you look at it… Cheers