Newbie Books

Ruby
1

Greetings all,

This is my first ML ever so forgive me if I do something I shouldn’t. I
have tried getting a list of past articles using # index as the help
file
specifies but I get nothing in return. I was hoping to find
recommendations
on beginner books for someone who has really never written a single line
of
code. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

McKenzie

2

McKenzie Cutshall wrote:

Greetings all,

This is my first ML ever so forgive me if I do something I shouldn’t. I
have tried getting a list of past articles using # index as the help file
specifies but I get nothing in return. I was hoping to find recommendations
on beginner books for someone who has really never written a single line of
code. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Ruby, McKenzie! Here’s a great starting point for you:
Learn to Program, by Chris Pine. If you like the web site then you can
buy the book. If you have questions, ask them here. There are many
people on this list who’ve worked their way through this course. Good
luck!

3

Tim H. wrote:

on beginner books for someone who has really never written a single
line of
code. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Ruby, McKenzie! Here’s a great starting point for you:
Learn to Program, by Chris Pine. If you like the web site then you can
buy the book. If you have questions, ask them here. There are many
people on this list who’ve worked their way through this course. Good
luck!

McKenzie, it sounds like I am about four weeks ahead of you. I hadn’t
done any coding for about twelve years, since college (FORTRAN, yo), but
then I decided to learn Ruby for some projects at work. I tried the
Pickaxe book, but it seemed like it was a couple levels too difficult.
But I picked up Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional, by Peter
Cooper and it was just right for me. I worked through the book and now
I’m writing my own stuff–very tentatively, of course.

I just bought a new one this week, Practical Ruby Projects: Ideas for
the Eclectic Programmer by Topher Cyll. I haven’t gone into it yet,
but looks like a good follow-on book.