On Feb 6, 2007, at 2:54 AM, Shawn W_ wrote:
I’ve looked at the Ruby Q. site but so far haven’t found them
easy or short enough for my liking…
There are easy quizzes. Look for the problems solved by many, many
people. In general, those are the easier problems. LCD Numbers and
pp Pascal are two examples.
James Edward G. II
James G. wrote:
On Feb 6, 2007, at 2:54 AM, Shawn W_ wrote:
I’ve looked at the Ruby Q. site but so far haven’t found them
easy or short enough for my liking…There are easy quizzes. Look for the problems solved by many, many
people. In general, those are the easier problems. LCD Numbers and
pp Pascal are two examples.James Edward G. II
How many is many many? I do get it, but it’s not something that’s going
to occur to a newbie. Would be nice if there was a simple, say, three
star indicator, easy, average, hard, or even just a simple header
[suitable for newbie] sign at the top of each quiz, after all I would
think beginners are a good proportion of visitors to the Ruby Q.zes,
yes?
On Feb 6, 2007, at 8:33 AM, Shawn W_ wrote:
James Edward G. II
How many is many many? I do get it, but it’s not something that’s
going
to occur to a newbie. Would be nice if there was a simple, say, three
star indicator, easy, average, hard, or even just a simple header
[suitable for newbie] sign at the top of each quiz, after all I would
think beginners are a good proportion of visitors to the Ruby Q.zes,
yes?
I’ve wanted to add such a rating, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Who decides what is a three star rating? You and I probably differ
on our definition of such.
James Edward G. II
On 2/6/07, Samantha [email protected] wrote:
Hello all.
Anyway, as I started to look at Python again, I happened to
discover Ruby. I spent about a month deciding on whether I wanted to
learn Ruby or Python, and as I looked at what was available, I felt
more at ease in Ruby.
Python is a fine language, but it has language design choices that
are a bit at odds with Ruby’s choices. It seems to me that you will
like one language or the other, but not both. Just conjecture on my
part.
I have found that from teaching my Dad & my Girlfriend programming,
that Ruby seems to be a fine language for beginners. Which is nice,
because it is increasingly a very commercial language, so if you get
good with it you can make a career out of it.
Okay, enough of THAT. I’m now at the point where I feel like I’m
reading the same thing over and over and over again. I’m not the most
patient person and I want to start coding something. I’ve already
made some small interactive ‘kiddie’ command line programs and the
such, but I’m getting bored. I just don’t know where or what or HOW
to start.
I am like you then. One big problem that I found with Ruby was the
widespread lack of example code, I learn very effectively by example
and by tweaking examples to fit my needs. Not enough example
code exists for Ruby. Most of it is locked in books.
If I was to recommend another book (I know your funds are tight) it
would be the Ruby Cookbook. Its basically a highly comprehensive
series of example solutions to example (but real world) problems.
In addition to instructing you how to use them, it might also stimulate
your ideas. There is another book, that is cheaper and may even be
more appropriate: “Everyday Scripting with Ruby” which looks good,
but I haven’t received it yet.
So, I ask you, the gurus… Where do I start? This feels like a
writer’s block and I’m sick of reading. I want to start doing
But at the end of the day, learning to program involves programming.
So basically pick a programming project. Anything. Pick something
useful to you, or something that is familiar already from your own
IT skills.
examples:
-extract author,album and track information (etc) from an MP3 file
-then modify it to go through your music directories and build up a
list
-use the POP3 Ruby library to download your e-mail from your ISP
-use one of the Ruby Web Automation tools (WATIR, Mechanize,
Hpricot, RubySoupful, etc.) against some public web sites, for example
try to monitor the bidding status on an ebay auction
-make a simple text editor UI
-make a program that monitors your bittorrent download directory
(all legal of course) and e-mails you when one finishes
If there’s one thing I love about Ruby, is that it has made me ambitious
about programming again. I no longer think about a problem “that sounds
hard”, “I am biting off more than I can chew here”, “maybe I will try
just
one of the subtasks to see how far I can get”. And apparently this
experience
scales down to beginners too.
I get a sense of manic glee when I hear war stories about beginners
delivering
commercial quality projects with Rails. Its like they haven’t learned
that
what they are doing is supposed to be hard, so they have no fear of it.
Have fun learning, and welcome to the community.
regards,
Richard.
James G. wrote:
On Feb 6, 2007, at 8:33 AM, Shawn W_ wrote:
James Edward G. II
How many is many many? I do get it, but it’s not something that’s
going
to occur to a newbie. Would be nice if there was a simple, say, three
star indicator, easy, average, hard, or even just a simple header
[suitable for newbie] sign at the top of each quiz, after all I would
think beginners are a good proportion of visitors to the Ruby Q.zes,
yes?I’ve wanted to add such a rating, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.
Who decides what is a three star rating? You and I probably differ
on our definition of such.James Edward G. II
Even a wrong assessment on your part is going to be far more accurate
than the assessment of a newbie who knows nothing. Think of it as a way
of steering the newbie away from the hard, ego deflating stuff that may
discourage them. Start with the easiest problem you have, slap a Newbie
Approved stamp on it, and go from there. Just keep it simple. It would
be just a guide.
Hey Samantha, welcome on board !
Some good news: you can read a 60% for free,
until the rest of it gets published online.
Hope you’ll be up and running soon, doing
business and on your way to B&N to buy the
dead wood release. (very worth it)
Good luck!
UG
On 2/7/07, Uma G. [email protected] wrote:
dead wood release. (very worth it)
Uma G.
http://umageller.wordpress.com
Thanks Uma, it’s good to be here. 
And, thanks for the resource, I’ll
go
check it out.
–
Samantha
“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
things are at risk.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
On 2/5/07, Samantha [email protected] wrote:
Absolutely. I might be relocating to downstate Michigan (either Metro
Detroit area or Ann Arbor) and I’m pretty stoked that there are user groups
down there. I’m sure I can gleam some ideas there, too.
You are very welcome to join use a the South East Michigan Ruby
Brigade (http://rubymi.org/). We meet on the first Monday of every
month, generally on campus in Ann Arbor. There is also talk about
trying to have meetings a little further East on a different day
(metro Detroit is pretty spread out, you know we all have cars and
like to drive around here ).
There is also a mailing list for RubyMI
(http://lists.rubymi.org/listinfo.cgi/rubymi-rubymi.org), where you
can the details of our meetings, make suggestions for up coming
meetings, etc. It is much lower volume than ruby-talk.
Let us know you are coming and we will try and have some of those
chocolate chip cookies for you.
pth
On 2/7/07, Patrick H. [email protected] wrote:
You are very welcome to join use a the South East Michigan Ruby
Arrg
line.gsub! /use a/, ‘us at’
pth
On 2/7/07, Patrick H. [email protected] wrote:
month, generally on campus in Ann Arbor. There is also talk about
chocolate chip cookies for you.
pth
Thank you, pth! I’ve expanded my job search to the Ann Arbor and
Detroit
Metro area so hopefully I hear something soon. Northern Michigan (where
I
am now) isn’t exactly the job seeker’s paradise.
Btw, I laughed at your last message regarding the gsub for your typo,
and my
partner (who telecommutes so is at home, too) asked me what I was
laughing
at. I tried to explain to her, and while she got it, all she could do
was
shake her head.
–
Samantha
“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
things are at risk.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thanks for all the great responses to my conundrums. They are really
appreciated and really have given me a lot to chew on, so to speak.
This is
definitely a friendly and welcoming community and I’m rather lucky that
I
picked Ruby as my first programming language.
–
Samantha
“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
things are at risk.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
On 2/7/07, Winston T. [email protected] wrote:
1 Safari Guide.
As to how to get started… Don’t discount “administration tasks”.
Even the ones you have linux commands for. You can learn a lot about
File and Find that way. That knowledge can then be used to help you
write your resume writing program.All The Best,
Winston T.
Thanks, Winston! I don’t think I still have access to my school’s
systems
anymore. I’m not taking any classes this semester because I’m unsure of
how
long I’ll be in Northern Michigan because of the job thing. I looked at
Safari and it seems really nice. I’m not sure that they offer it at the
college here, though.
Thanks for your thoughts, they are appreciated.
Samantha
“Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
things are at risk.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you still have access to your schools systems, you might be able to
read a good amount of ruby stuff online.
Some schools give open access to the Safari Online Books
(http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com). How you access the books
will probably vary by school but it’s worth checking out. The Ruby
Way, and Ruby for Rails (which I highly suggest) are both on there.
There are over 4000 books available for viewing on various topics. A
search for ‘Ruby’ on the site comes up with 336 books, 43 articles and
1 Safari Guide.
As to how to get started… Don’t discount “administration tasks”.
Even the ones you have linux commands for. You can learn a lot about
File and Find that way. That knowledge can then be used to help you
write your resume writing program.
All The Best,
Winston T.
On 2/7/07, Patrick H. [email protected] wrote:
On 2/7/07, Patrick H. [email protected] wrote:
You are very welcome to join use a the South East Michigan Ruby
Arrg
line.gsub! /use a/, ‘us at’
pth
why gsub?
The best way to learn any new lang(assuming you know the basics if,
else, while, for, for/in, switch) is to take on a HUGE project then do
it piece meal.
That way your developing not only your knowlege of the syntax your also
able to develop your understanding of
object oriented(OO) design,
MVC,
OO programming,
Agile development
Project Managment
Version control
etc.
That in mind I suggest you start a rails project that could (one day) go
industrial strength and build it in stages. Just keep adding features;
but only after the ones you have are working properly(don’t be
microsoft).
By working in rails you’ll be able to pick out some of the cool things
that ruby can do and ask how can I take advantage of that. (personally I
love method missing).
Just pick a project you can be passionate about.
Good Luck
Patrick H. wrote:
On 2/7/07, Patrick H. [email protected] wrote:
You are very welcome to join use a the South East Michigan Ruby
Arrg
line.gsub! /use a/, ‘us at’
pth
for the record
line.gsub! ‘use a’, ‘us at’
is way less resource intensive
On 2/7/07, Robert D. [email protected] wrote:
ah no, you missed my point, (interestingly by the way, I agree with your
application of “!”), but what disturbs me here is the “g”. Well I am not
gonna hitchhike this very useful thread any further, I might post my
thoughts about this issue on a thread of its own, but I will rethink the
matter before.
mea culpa, mea culpa, mea summa culpa
meta mod:
correction_post.sub!(/gsub/,‘sub’)
pthOn 2/8/07, Patrick H. [email protected] wrote:
meta mod:
correction_post.sub!(/gsub/,‘sub’)
thats a nice one, You will be forgiven (I guess, hope, no idea
On 2/7/07, Keynan P. [email protected] wrote:
for the record
line.gsub! ‘use a’, ‘us at’
is way less resource intensive
–
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
ah no, you missed my point, (interestingly by the way, I agree with your
application of “!”), but what disturbs me here is the “g”. Well I am not
gonna hitchhike this very useful thread any further, I might post my
thoughts about this issue on a thread of its own, but I will rethink the
matter before.
Cheers
Robert
On 2/5/07, James Edward G. II [email protected] wrote:
On Feb 5, 2007, at 9:07 PM, Jeremy McAnally wrote:
I’ll give you four extra credit points if you can make you resume
builder spit out a PDF using PDF::Writer or use LaTeX.I’ve used PDF::Writer recently and I think that should be worth more
than four points.
I’d love to hear your complaints, offline.
-austin
This forum is not affiliated to the Ruby language, Ruby on Rails framework, nor any Ruby applications discussed here.
Sponsor our Newsletter | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Remote Ruby Jobs