I know nothing about programming - I mean, I can distinguish the
difference between different programming languages, but that’s about
it. I run Fedora Core 6 and can do basic web-design.
What I want to do is create a web-based point and click collaboration
source for musicians. Essentially person A could record a demo on his
home recording setup, and upload it or share it in some way with
person B somewhere else. Its useability would lie in its ability to
parse an XML file from the home recording setup, manage individual wav
files (perhaps compress them along the way), and collaborate in an
easy and productive manner.
I realise I’m going to have to write some code if I want to get this
done, and Rails sounds like it might be just the thing I need.
My question is, with the above project in mind, how successful do you
think I could be if Rails was the first programming language I’ll
learn?
My question is, with the above project in mind, how successful do you
think I could be if Rails was the first programming language I’ll
learn?
Ruby is the language you would learn, rails is just the web platform.
For a casual programmer who just wants to have fun and create some
stuff, ruby is great to learn on.
Go get yourself the Programming Ruby book from the pragmatic
bookshelf, and also the book on rails they put out. They are the best
out there and a great reference while you are learning.
Chris
Rails is a web application framework written in Ruby. You can start
playing with Rails and hardly write any code. But you will need to
understand basic programming techniques (classes, objects, methods,
variables, control structures) and Ruby syntax before going much
further.
I would recommend taking a look at Learn to Program by Chris P.
(Pragmatic Programmers) to get started with programming and the Ruby
language. Then move on to Rails.
Good luck!
Aaron
On Feb 16, 2007, at 10:52 PM, [email protected] wrote:
My question is, with the above project in mind, how successful do you
think I could be if Rails was the first programming language I’ll
learn?
Rails would be an excellent choice for your project.
The ‘Agile Web D. with Rails’ book is an excellent starter
book that will get you to the next level of proficiency.
It’s been mentioned that Rails will get you started without writing
any code (aka scaffolding). That’s true, but it won’t be enough for
production. You’ll need to override the interfaces that scaffolds
provide, especially the sensitive ones like delete, create and
update. I also recommend the ‘Rails Recipes’ book by Chad F.
which has techniques of how to protect your application with
authentication and authorization.
Jose
…
Jose Hales-Garcia
UCLA Department of Statistics
[email protected]
done, and Rails sounds like it might be just the thing I need.
My question is, with the above project in mind, how successful do you
think I could be if Rails was the first programming language I’ll
learn?
The way I like to think about it is, ruby on rails is easy if you want
to do something easy, and hard if you want to do something hard.
As others have pointed out, if you think rails is a programming
language, I don’t think you’re going to be very successful 
Seriously though, the project you are proposing is non-trivial. For an
experienced RoR dev, it might take a month or so. If you’re a bright
person learning your first language, maybe 6 months to a year. Have
you looked into popular cms web-apps like joomla etc, they may do 90%
of what you want already.