How to improve my Ruby skills ?

[Zouplaz]

Hello there... Like many others I've discovered Ruby when I started
using RoR. It's been 10 months now.

I've covered most basic parts of the language even if mastering the
language have not been my main goal.
Now, I would like to go deeper into Ruby and change the way I think
(more or less, I'm still thinking in Java/C++)

I could try to solve some Ruby quizzes but I'm afraid they are too
difficult for me.
Except the quizzes (should I or not), what could I do to improve my Ruby
skills ?

Thanks

I've read few books about Ruby (pick axe included) and I'm still blind
when it comes to put in practice what I've learn

 

[Robert Klemme]

Hello there... Like many others I've discovered Ruby when I started
using RoR. It's been 10 months now.

I've covered most basic parts of the language even if mastering the
language have not been my main goal.
Now, I would like to go deeper into Ruby and change the way I think
(more or less, I'm still thinking in Java/C++)

I could try to solve some Ruby quizzes but I'm afraid they are too
difficult for me.
Except the quizzes (should I or not), what could I do to improve my Ruby
skills ?

Thanks

I've read few books about Ruby (pick axe included) and I'm still blind
when it comes to put in practice what I've learn

If you find the quizzes too hard, then try to exercise some self cooked
tasks with a lower level of difficulty. IMHO nothing helps better than
actually /using/ the language.

Kind regards

robert

 

[Simon Strandgaard]

what could I do to improve my Ruby skills ?

[snip]

Write an article about a specific thing ruby, where you
will have to do some research and ask questions on
the ruby mailinglists. Explaining things to other people
is the best way to learn things yourself.

 

[Jan Svitok]

What about a Nuby Quiz?

IIRC, some time ago somebody asked what are the easier quizes. Look up
the archives.

what could I do to improve my Ruby skills ?

[snip]

For me the following worked:

- working a lot with ruby (in fact, I worked with ruby fulltime for
several months)

- reading ruby-talk and/or ruby core, and ruby blogs (especially those
of zenspider, mauricio fernandez, eric hodel and some others)

- answering easy questions on ruby talk (i realized many nuances along
the way, small things that I didn't notice when I read the programming
ruby for the first time.

- reading ruby sources (optional ;-)

- reading other people's sources

- reporting bugs (I tend to dive deeper when I want to report a bug -
1. to see what's the cause, 2. to see whether there's a quick/obvious
solution)

There are many tricks that you can learn, ranging from various useful
library functions to the metaprogramming... Then you can learn about
ruby's limits and what can be done with them, etc...

Jano

 

[James Edward Gray II]

IIRC, some time ago somebody asked what are the easier quizes. Look up
the archives.

It's been asked multiple times before, yes. Here is probably the
best set of answers we have seen:

http://rubyurl.com/DNY

James Edward Gray II

 

[Zouplaz]

le 13/12/2006 15:00, James Edward Gray II nous a dit:

It's been asked multiple times before, yes. Here is probably the best
set of answers we have seen:

http://rubyurl.com/DNY

James Edward Gray II

Thanks for all the answers. James, this url raise a 404...

 

[J2M]

2 things that really got my Ruby going were 1. creating a project that
was around Ruby rather than Rails which is not huge, but gives me scope
to use a lot of different aspects of the language. 2. Reading David
Blacks Ruby for Rails, it is so clear in explaining some of the
underlying facets of Ruby.

On this thread very near the bottom;

http://groups.google.com/group/ruby-talk-google/browse_thread/thread/cc5c6e8bb05fb31a

David Black lists a number of items that should be understood about
Ruby, it is a pretty good list and you would find yourself a good step
forward by trying to learn about each.

James

 

[James Edward Gray II]

It was up an hour ago or so. Checking the main page you see the
following:
Rubyurl is going under some maintenance. Check back in a few days!

I just got through now, but here is the full URL:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_thread/
thread/56715eaf2f9a657/3bfef6ea8868b7f1

James Edward Gray II

 

[Tom Copeland]

I could try to solve some Ruby quizzes but I'm afraid they are too
difficult for me.

I'd suggest getting James' Ruby Quiz book:

http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/fr_quiz/

It goes into detail about the solutions and is full pretty good quality
Ruby code. A fine piece of work.

Yours,

Tom

 

[Giles Bowkett]

First I tried implementing an Othello simulator in Ruby using Ajax
without Rails or Scriptaculous. This failed horribly. Then I read
basically every book I could find and went to a conference (Canada on
Rails). Then I started working with Rails. Then I created a music
generator using continuations (to a large extent by copying code from
a book). Then I made it a rule never to use for loops. Then I took on
a contract to create an impossibly ambitious application. Then I found
excuses to work Lispy stuff into perfectly normal Rails controllers
for no good reason. Then I pushed myself to use Procs, blocks, and
lambda(). Then I decided to override class methods even though I
didn't know how.

Basically it's very very simple. Just pick something difficult and do
it. Rinse, lather, repeat.