Newbie - which version to start with

Rails
1

Hi,

I am a Ruby on Rails newbie and have some questions.

The latests versions seem to be:
Rails 2.0.2 and
Ruby 1.8.6

Should I install these?
What about ruby gems? Is there a specific version for that?

Also, I have bought the RoR book (Agile Web D. with Rails),
but it covers a 1.x version of Rails. Is it useful to start off
trying things out by following this book (with older versions)?

In the RoR weblog http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/ there seems to be too
many complaints about installations, setups, versions, and so on…
thus help would be very appreciated.

Thank you

2

I think it is better to start of with the latest version, by refering
to online guides, like Fabio Akita’s rails 2 screencast and tutorial,
and refer to the RoR book along the way in the same time, so you know
what are the new changes in Rails 2. Don’t bother bout the
installation problem, you’ll solve it out along the way even if you
have.

3

yep, start with the latest,

I’ve got some guides on my blog if you want to read

… http://www.red91.com

otherwise have a look at the screencasts on these, good examples…

… http://www.railscasts.com
… http://www.railsenvy.com
… http://www.peepcode.com

4

You may want to check out RailsCasts (free) http://www.railscasts.com/
and PeepCode (not free, but well worth the $ IMHO) http://
peepcode.com. Both have updated material available.

Good luck.
Mike