Ah, time to indroduce the real “intro to programming” section. This chapter1 is entirely about ruby…which is probably where most folks realize they’re either all in…or lose interest completely.

Learning to program is not easy (IMO). It requires a different approach to thinking that can take some time to really comprehend (and ultimately build upon).

I’m slowly getting there, but it demands a lot of repetition and exposure to numerous (but common) concepts. I can best describe it as a ‘series of epiphanies’ — some of which humble your knowledge/progress…and those that further feed your desire for more.

Below are some resources that helped me to this point (in terms of actual programming):

  • Codeschool : Online Teaching Tool : Try Ruby is a great place to start, followed by Rails for Zombies and Ruby Bits. Many folks find Treehouse and Codecademyto be similarly helpful as well.
  • Harvard’s CS50.tv : Actual coursework from Harvard’s Intro to Computer Science (previous year) : This is really incredible. Professor David Malan does an incredible job introducing you to computer science thinking and covers nearly everything you might need to know to into a deeper/narrower track.
  • Learn to Program : Great introductory book (that happens to also use ruby as its guide of choice).
  • Ruby in 100 Minutes : I’m not sure where I stumbled upon this site, but it covers many of the basics without being too overwhelming (I’m treating this as one of the supplements to Chapter 4).

That’s all for now. More to come… :shipit:

  1. This is a continuation of lessons learned from Michael Hartl’s Rails Tutorial. Feel free to review my Chapter 3 notes as well. ↩