I’ve been taking some time to improve my technical skills. A lot’s changed since I was in school building very simple applications with ancient technologies. So while I have had some spare time lately, I’ve been doing some personal study.
One of the great things I’ve discovered is that there are some amazing resources available today for people who want to teach themselves. Here are some suggestions if you are interested in learning about Ruby on Rails.
Some useful online learning tools:
There’s a ton of good stuff on YouTube that you can start with. If you’re willing to pay a bit you can get going with other classes like the ones below.
Codeschool.com has some good intro classes, especially their Truy Ruby, Rails for Zombies set, and Git coverage.
Peepcode.com has invaluable little screencasts showing developers in action. Love to hear them think through the process as they work things out.
And then there’s a great selection of classes at Lynda.com. I’ve taken classes to update my knowledge on subjects including HTML 5, CSS 3, jQuery, JavaScript, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, XML, Git, Unix Commands, mobile web design, SQL, C/C++, Adobe CS apps, and more. I’m a big fan of Lynda and recommend it often.
Some Ruby and Rails books:
A great starter: Learn to Program by Chris Pine
A more detailed look at the language: The Rugy Programming Language by David Flanagan & Yukihiro Matsumoto
A good book full of Ruby examples: The Ruby Cookbook by Lucas Carlson & Leonard Richardson
A good intro to Rails: Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl
A good book of rails examples to walk yourself through: Rails Recipes by Chad Fowler
Coverage of more advanced topics: Service Oriented Design with Ruby on Rails by Paul Dix
And if your brain needs some jogging to think like a programmer, here’s a nice little book. All the examples are in C++ but it’s still useful to adjust your brain.
And throwing in some old fashioned learning still works too
Lastly, you might want to enroll in a certificate program at your local university, which are nice if you want some practical knowledge offered for working professionals and don’t want to go back to school for a whole CS degree. Many schools even put their classes online and that’s cool. But sometimes its nice to take an old fashioned class from a living person and surrounded by other people to get that physical learning happening. Also, a real class feels more accountable to me, and I’m less likely to skip it to play xbox.
Anyway, these are some of the things I’ve found useful as I’ve been working to update my tech skills.
