Learn By Doing
The best way to learn Ruby on Rails is to dive in, and try it yourself. The best way to do THAT is to attend one of our live workshops, where our pro instructors can guide you through your specific needs, and get you launching your own web app. Ruby and Rails also have an extensive ecosystem of professional and user-generated guides, blogs, and screencasts. Look for step by step tutorials that help you understand the concepts as you follow along.
The Big Picture
Before you start, look over the complete set of Rails competencies. This is the 30,000-foot view of what kind of concepts and tools a professional Rails developer will work with. But don’t be overwhelmed! It is a lot, but you can work on each piece as it suits you.
Your first step is to get the needed tools installed on a computer you have access to. This is called your “development environment”. We will publish some instructions for tackling this soon.
Our Favorite Resources
Once you have Ruby, Rails, and the other dependent technologies running on your system, you are ready for Rails Fundamentals Workshop. Or you can start in with some self-guided tools. We’ve compiled this list of our favorite learning and training resources from around the web and right here in Seattle.
Ruby / Rails / Development Online Resources:
- Ruby Docs: http://www.ruby-doc.org/
- RDoc: http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript/etc : http://www.gotapi.com
- Git: http://gitimmersion.com/
Ruby:
- http://ruby.railstutorial.org/
- http://rubykoans.com/
- http://ruby.learncodethehardway.org/
- http://kidsruby.com/
Rails:
- http://railsforzombies.org/
- http://rails.nuvvo.com/lesson/6187-getting-started-with-rails
- http://www.buildingwebapps.com/learningrails
- http://www.sitepoint.com/learn-ruby-on-rails/
Local Seattle Groups:
- http://www.meetup.com/The-Seattle-Ruby-on-Rails-Developers-Meetup-Group/
- http://www.meetup.com/SeattleRailsBridge/
- http://www.zenspider.com/Languages/Ruby/Seattle/