Resources
Community
The Boston Ruby Group organizes monthly presentations and project night. Project night always has a few volunteers available specifically to help others. It is a beginner-friendly event.
The Ruby community welcomes you.
Install your tools
It's customary to install Ruby on your own laptop, and we debated for a long time before using a virtual machine. You can continue to use the RailsBridge virtual machine if you wish, but we encourage you to have your own set of tools. The Ruby site offers several options on its installation page.
Learning sequence
For a quick review of what we learned today, watch Ruby in 100 Minutes.
Once you've got Ruby basics down, the best way to learn is to make a practice project. Projects take you off the smooth path of a tutorial and out into the exciting wild lands. Pick a problem you care about. Start small and spiral out.
Ruby on Rails is a web framework, that is, a set of libraries and tools to make a dynamic website. Come to the RailsBridge Rails workshop to learn more.
Tutorials
There's a wealth of tutorials and resources for learning Ruby and Rails. Here are the ones we recommend starting with.
- Ruby Koans are a set of puzzles that “walk you along the path to enlightenment in order to learn Ruby. The goal is to learn the Ruby language, syntax, structure, and some common functions and libraries.”
- Code Wars is an online set of puzzles.
- Learn to Program by Chris Pine is a good starting place for new programmers.
- Programming Ruby, a.k.a. “the Pickaxe Book”, is one of the most popular Ruby books.
Classes
- Girl Develop It offers low-cost classes in programming and web design.
- Check community programs like the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
Bootcamps
Bootcamps are intensive full-time programs. There are several in our area.