Thursday, January 03, 2008

Ruby for Rails - A new start

As usual, let me make my usual disclaimer, I realize nobody is reading this, but I AM writing it.

Meta4worldz, from the main site, which has simply been some baby pictures and some stories for over a year now, all of my blogs (meta4worlds - fiction site , Cubs Obsession , Bears Obsession , and even Mollyworldz, will be changing. All of them will be re-developed, along with at least one other site that I plan to devote to Programming.

Over a year ago, I learned about a different programming language, Ruby, and it's supposedly revolutionary deployment, Ruby on Rails, Rails being an application framework written by David Heinemeier Hanson. The framework, as well as the Ruby language and compilers, are all Open Source and all free. And they work very nicely. All of this has been said, and even demonstrated, in this video, about which much hyperbole has been written already, and somewhat rightly so.

When I first watched the video, it was like sitting over someone's shoulders and watching them work a computer, some tech who knew way more than I did, and so fast that it was hard to process what he was actually doing. Still, it caught my attention, and in my spare time since then, I have gotten to the point of understanding exactly what he did, and appreciate how simple it was and how simple it could be for even me. One thing I realized early on was that here was finally a new branch of programming development that I could sink my teeth into and go.

So, one year later, around a full time job and a now one year old child, I'm ready to do this thing, because there is still room for someone to spread the word of Ruby on Rails, teach it, and deploy it in new and exciting ways. As it is with almost every programming style and language, the tutorials available and even text material are spotty at best, cluttered with mistakes, or possibly just oversights, in them.

One set of tutorials I can recommend whole-heartedly, doing what the video does as far as exciting you about this language, but with actual coding and installation instructions that work is the ON LAMP tutorials by Curtis Hibbs, another name that will constantly come up as you venture into Ruby on Rails, and kudos to him because he took the time to do it right. It is called Rolling with Ruby on Rails Revisited which is an update to an earlier tutorial that takes you through a simple Cookbook program. If you just want to see if you like this whole RUby on Rails thing, Do this tutorial, maybe the only problem with it is that by trying to write loosely and set in as a workplace scenario, his prose gets a little weary, but just a little. It doesn't take long and when you're done there is something that you can look at at realize the potential of it all.

As far as my own tutorials, every day there will be Ruby news from me, book reviews, tutorials, either mine or a pointer to someone else if they put up a good one, there are a few, each with their own merits, and commentary as I get along. I've accumulated is a pile of information and thoughts about it all to keep writing posts for quite a while.

For now, I'll get back at it, learning Ruby on Rails that is.

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