# Re: Just a question to throw out there

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-just-a-question-to-throw-out-there/74847>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 7, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-just-a-question-to-throw-out-there/74847 "2006-11-07T10:59:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kuma](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@kuma](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kuma)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-just-a-question-to-throw-out-there/74847/1 "2006-11-07T10:59:05Z")

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Skotty,

Don’t be discouraged. Ruby is _far_ from the easiest language to learn,  
especially when compared to languages like Java (the language itself,  
not the complicated frameworks like J2EE). I think Ruby aims to make  
hard things easy for advanced programmers, while perhaps falling down a  
bit in making easy things easy for junior programmers. 🙂 As you’ve  
seen, passing blocks of code as arguments comes up fairly early in the  
reading. This is a fairly advanced idea for someone new to programming.  
Ruby also borrows a lot of tricks from languages like PERL which are  
famous for cramming entire applications into twenty lines of code. In  
many languages it’s considered bad style to do 10 things in one line of  
code, but in Ruby it seems par for the course. In my opinion this would  
make it especially hard to learn for someone who doesn’t have a  
programming background.

On the other hand, Ruby allows you to do some really cool things which  
would be much more difficult or impossible in other languages. Ruby on  
Rails, for example.

My advice to you is to use IRB, take small steps, and if you get totally  
discouraged, try another language.

Brian H.

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**Author:** ![kuma](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@kuma](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kuma)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-just-a-question-to-throw-out-there/74847/2 "2006-11-07T10:59:06Z")

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I looked at Perl briefly and all the {'s kind of make me nervous.  
It seems like Ruby is kind of straight foward in a way (correct me if  
i’m wrong) and I shouldn’t have _too_ much trouble figuring it out but  
like I said I’ve never programmed before. The closest to any kind of  
“programming” is sudo apt-get on Ubuntu or using bash at all. And that’s  
a stretch. I’d love to learn a language mostly to say I’ve done it. And  
mostly because well, I can’t say I’ve done anything else in my life. har  
har.

I guess I’ll just review and review and go over and over again until I  
get things right and can do it without thinking about it, or try the  
“create what you want” suggestion and learn head on. That seems to be  
the only way I’ll learn anything anymore.

Skt  
On Sat, 2006-11-04 at 02:06 +0900, Hartin, Brian wrote:

> famous for cramming entire applications into twenty lines of code. In  
> discouraged, try another language.  
> I was alright with blocks, and then along came these @ and several other  
> But for now, I guess I’ll just keep reading the tutorials and try that  
> You sing a new song, unsung.
> 
> > pick up. There are some powerful concepts in there like blocks and
> > 
> > > Why’s guide is a biggggg help but I don’t know why I can’t retain  
> > > If you were not an intended recipient,  
> > > Please notify the sender and delete all copies.  
> > > We may monitor email to and from our network.
> 
> * * *

–  
website! ([http://www.freewebs.com/scottygiveshighfives](http://www.freewebs.com/scottygiveshighfives))  
email: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

you sing a new song, unsung.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kuma](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@kuma](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kuma)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-just-a-question-to-throw-out-there/74847/3 "2006-11-07T10:59:13Z")

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On Nov 3, 2006, at 11:06 AM, Hartin, Brian wrote:

> As you’ve  
> seen, passing blocks of code as arguments comes up fairly early in the  
> reading. This is a fairly advanced idea for someone new to  
> programming.

Are you sure? I honestly don’t know, I’m just asking. I’m wondering  
if it was hard _because_ we are experienced programmers. Newcomers  
don’t have that existing knowledge to overcome.

For example, iterators were quite a bit of adjustment for me when I  
was new to Ruby. I think the main barrier for me though was mapping  
all my old loop knowledge to the new way of doing things.

James Edward G. II