Learning Ruby, where do I start?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm a C++/C#/PHP/Javascript programmer who's been interested in learning Ruby for a while now. I just graduated and considering this means I no longer have homework to do, I figured now might be a good time.

Just one thing, I don't know where to start. Can someone point me in the direction of some good Ruby tutorials, what editor to use, basically anything that's relevant to a starting Ruby programmer. Perhaps some suggestions for fun projects that would help me learn the language? I'm running Windows, if it matters.

Thanks!

Answer 1

My interest in ruby was for rails, like many other engineers.

I started with this book: http://www.pragprog.com/titles/rails3/agile-web-development-with-rails-third-edition

It's awesome. I learned rails and ruby at the same time, basically. Some recommend learning ruby first, but I'm way too impatient for sound advice.

Here's their book on strictly ruby, haven't read it but I imagine it's as good as the others. http://www.pragprog.com/titles/ruby3/programming-ruby-1-9

Answer 2

In terms of an editor you may want to look at netbeans or the RubyMine editor.

In terms of tutorials, try rubylearning.com. If you are interested in Rails, there are plenty of books and online tutorials that will help get you started.

Stack Overflow is a great resource if you have any questions.

Answer 3

This is the only book you'll need for ruby:

Design Patterns in Ruby

For a beginning book on rails this one is easy to read and teaches most of the fundamentals:

Simply Rails 2

Answer 4

I started to learn ruby simply reading this: http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/

In addition to ruby language you may watch screencasts about rails: http://railscasts.com/

As an Windows IDE I'm using E-TextEditor with Monaco font.

Answer 5

Well I'm not really a Ruby user and have little experience in Ruby, however I have noticed that the Ruby site does contain allot of excellent looking documentation including tutorials for getting started, tutorials for moving from another language to Ruby as well as a whole bunch of other great stuff. I would suggest having a look as it will offer a reasonable taste for the basics at the very least http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/

Answer 6

Good suggestions here, and I also highly recommend The Ruby Programming Language

Answer 7

When I had to figure something out in Ruby, Ruby in twenty minutes was pretty useful. The best thing about it was that it really does only take about twenty minutes.

Answer 8

If you want to read a fun introduction to ruby, you have to check out "why's (poignant) guide to Ruby". It is a crazy ruby tutorial that involves cartoon foxes and chunky bacon. It's not at all like your typical programming language book and is a pretty fun read.

Answer 9

As you, I had a background in C++/C# and wanted to give Ruby on Rails a shot. Similar to some of the other responses you've received I found the initial best source in getting up with Ruby on Rails, just the framework, to be Agile Web Development with Rails. For the Ruby language I found the pick axe book to be fantastic - Programming Ruby 1.9. Both are available from Pragmatic Programmer.

Other great sources of Ruby and Ruby on Rails screencasts are:

• Railscasts
• Peepcode
• Scaling rails

As always, studying the source code produced by the gurus is a great resourcee!

You may also wish to consider looking for Ruby/Ruby on Rails blogs - perhaps in a different question on this site.