Hello all,
It’s been a substantial length of time since I’ve posted here, let alone
did
anything in the realms of learning Ruby. While I was out of work, I was
spending a serious amount of time diving into Ruby and Rails. For the
past
couple of months, I’ve not touched Ruby more than a few hours total.
My question is this: Is it possible to get anywhere when you only have
about an hour per evening, and a couple of hours on the weekends, to
devote
to learning and advancing in the language? If so, what would you focus
on?
I’m pretty sure I remember much of what I learned over the last 6+
months,
but I’m hoping that a “Slow but Steady” approach can work.
I’d love to hear your comments and feedback.
Thanks,
Samantha
http://www.babygeek.org/
“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
things are at risk.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
quoth the Samantha:
I’m pretty sure I remember much of what I learned over the last 6+ months,
but I’m hoping that a “Slow but Steady” approach can work.
Sure it is possible. I am no professional programmer, in fact, I don’t
even
use a computer in my line of work. However, I do have a pretty large
interest
in computers and programming, so I treat it like a hobby. I do basically
exactly what you describe, ie: invest about an hour a day and more on
weekends.
My advice: spend your time a) reading code, and b) writing code. Simply
the
best way to learn. Books and tutorials et al are great, but I find the
best
way to learn is to be active and write code, not to passively read words
on a
page. Also: take part in the Ruby quiz each week. I have found that to
be a
fantastic resource.
I’d love to hear your comments and feedback.
Thanks,
Samantha
-d
On 6/16/07, darren kirby [email protected] wrote:
My advice: spend your time a) reading code, and b) writing code. Simply
darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org
“…the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more
expected…”
- Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972
Thanks for the feedback, Darren. It’s good to hear the encouragement
and
see that you don’t have to spend 10 hours a day obsessing, er focusing
on
stuff to be able to learn. 
(Which is essentially what I was doing
months
ago.) It’s very different to go from constant immersion to having
limited
time.
Thanks,
Samantha
http://www.babygeek.org/
“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
things are at risk.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Samantha wrote:
My question is this: Is it possible to get anywhere when you only have
about an hour per evening, and a couple of hours on the weekends, to devote
to learning and advancing in the language? If so, what would you focus on?
I’m pretty sure I remember much of what I learned over the last 6+ months,
but I’m hoping that a “Slow but Steady” approach can work.
Darren wrote:
My advice: spend your time a) reading code, and b) writing code. Simply the
best way to learn. Books and tutorials et al are great, but I find the best
way to learn is to be active and write code, not to passively read words on a
page. Also: take part in the Ruby quiz each week. I have found that to be a
fantastic resource.
Darren is right - as long as you know Ruby and Rails somewhat then you
don’t need to start with books. Start working on something that is
interesting and if you have an hour a day you’ll be fine. I only have
that much and I found if I can actually spend it coding then I can be
really productive. One suggestion is to work on projects that are
slightly out of the comfort zone of Rails. In working on a Rails
plugin and a Ruby based blog recently I’ve learned a lot more than
when I was coding in the strictly Rails framework. His suggestion of
working on RubyQuiz puzzles is also good.
One thing that I also do is maximize the productivity of coding time
by having problems at least mostly solved in my head when I start
working. I have little time on the computer but I have 2 hours a day
on the train so I spend that time thinking a problem out as completely
as I can so that when I sit down it’s more or less typing and running
tests. I’ve found this to be an extremely productive way to work.