# Newbie Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 30, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/95368 "2006-05-30T17:15:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/95368/1 "2006-05-30T17:15:20Z")
All, I was URL’d to this place after asking a XML question. Is this the right place for New to Ruby ? What does a basic Ruby Application look like ? The only hands on expirience with making a GUI was a trial phase with REALbasic to get a grip on what programming is all about. They sent me here. I need to have a Application that obtains data from a XML web page and log that data to a txt log file everytime the web page auto updates itself. The purpose is to log sporting event results in real time. It would be a utility type Application to compliment other tasks and calculations done in Excel. Please paste URL/s to the next place if this is not the right place for brand newbies to Ruby. Cheers Thanks falcon ---
**Author:** ![falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 6:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/95368/2 "2006-05-30T18:37:28Z")
> I was URL’d to this place after asking a XML question. > Is this the right place for New to Ruby ? > What does a basic Ruby Application look like ? > > The only hands on expirience with making a GUI was a trial phase with > REALbasic to get a grip on what programming is all about. They sent me here. I’m afraid that if you’re new to programming, there isn’t really any place where you can ask “how do I write an application?” and expect an answer. A number of good resources exist for learning Ruby. Premier among them is the book “Programming Ruby”, and older edition of which is available online under a free license here: [http://www.rubycentral.com/book/](http://www.rubycentral.com/book/) The `home` of Ruby’s documentation lives at: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/](http://www.ruby-doc.org/) which is a great place to start as well. There’s also “Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby” [http://poignantguide.net/ruby/](http://poignantguide.net/ruby/) if you’re not into the typical programming texts… > I need to have a Application that obtains data from a XML web page and > log that data to a txt log file everytime the web page auto updates > itself. I’m not sure why you need a GUI application for that. Ruby provides standard libs for everything you need to handle the described task, the standard lib is documented at [ruby-doc.org](http://ruby-doc.org). I’m afraid you’ll have to ask more specific questions to get better answers. Hope this helps get you started, -Tim ---
**Author:** ![falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/95368/3 "2006-05-30T18:44:10Z")
On May 30, 2006, at 12:34 PM, Tim B. wrote: > answer. > > A number of good resources exist for learning Ruby. Premier among them > is the book “Programming Ruby”, and older edition of which is > available online under a free license here: > [http://www.rubycentral.com/book/](http://www.rubycentral.com/book/) > > The `home` of Ruby’s documentation lives at: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/](http://www.ruby-doc.org/) > which is a great place to start as well. There’s also “Why’s > (Poignant) Guide to Ruby” [http://poignantguide.net/ruby/](http://poignantguide.net/ruby/) if you’re > not into the typical programming texts… Don’t forget “Learn to Program” [http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/](http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/) titles/fr\_ltp/ I haven’t read it myself, but it gets a lot of press as a great beginner book. And it teaches you in ruby, so you’ll be ready to go once you get a handle on the basics. ---
**Author:** ![falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/95368/4 "2006-05-31T03:52:11Z")
Mat S. wrote: > On May 30, 2006, at 12:34 PM, Tim B. wrote: > > > answer. > > > > A number of good resources exist for learning Ruby. Premier among them > > is the book “Programming Ruby”, and older edition of which is > > available online under a free license here: > > [http://www.rubycentral.com/book/](http://www.rubycentral.com/book/) > > > > The `home` of Ruby’s documentation lives at: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/](http://www.ruby-doc.org/) > > which is a great place to start as well. There’s also “Why’s > > (Poignant) Guide to Ruby” [http://poignantguide.net/ruby/](http://poignantguide.net/ruby/) if you’re > > not into the typical programming texts… > > Don’t forget “Learn to Program” [http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/](http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/) > titles/fr\_ltp/ > I haven’t read it myself, but it gets a lot of press as a great > beginner book. And it teaches you in ruby, so you’ll be ready to go > once you get a handle on the basics. Thanks everyone, this helped much to check out these URL’s. Will look into it. ---
**Author:** ![falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@falcon](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/95368/5 "2006-05-30T18:44:00Z")
On 5/30/06, Askme A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > All, > > I was URL’d to this place after asking a XML question. > Is this the right place for New to Ruby ? > What does a basic Ruby Application look like ? Hi. Welcome. 🙂 This list is most often used for folks asking specific questions after they’ve already tried a few things and done some research. If you’re brand new to Ruby, you might have a look at some of the content here: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/](http://www.ruby-doc.org/) . Also, at the RubyGarden ([http://www.rubygarden.org/](http://www.rubygarden.org/)) there’s the faq: [http://www.rubygarden.org/faq/dispatch.cgi?controller=main&action=index](http://www.rubygarden.org/faq/dispatch.cgi?controller=main&action=index) and the wiki: [http://wiki.rubygarden.org/Ruby](http://wiki.rubygarden.org/Ruby) . The faq for this mailing list is [http://rubyhacker.com/clrFAQ.html](http://rubyhacker.com/clrFAQ.html) . You can try out running some Ruby code online (in your browser) here: [http://tryruby.hobix.com/](http://tryruby.hobix.com/) . After learning the basics, you’ll then probably start your application (the one you describe below) by looking in the standard library to see what’s in there that can help you: - obtain a page from a web site, - parse the XML in it. If what you need isn’t in the standard library, you can usually find what you need at RubyForge. There’s also a site called the RAA (Ruby Application Archive – [http://raa.ruby-lang.org/](http://raa.ruby-lang.org/) ) that lists a lot of available Ruby modules (which may not be listed at RubyForge I presume). Enjoy. 🙂 —John