Photo by jonathanb1989
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I consider Ruby one of the easier languages to learn if you have no prior experience in programming.
Ruby was developed in 1993 by Yukihiro Matsumoto who had an important goal in mind when writing Ruby:
“Often people, especially computer engineers, focus on the machines. They think, ‘By doing this, the machine will run faster. By doing this, the machine will run more effectively. By doing this, the machine will something something something.’ They are focusing on machines. But in fact we need to focus on humans, on how humans care about doing programming or operating the application of the machines. We are the masters. They are the slaves.”
With that in mind, Ruby was designed for productivity and fun for the programmer. It has many of the great qualities a programmer would look for: it’s elegant, expressive, powerful and flexible.
Here are three awesome resources, each with their own unique advantages, to help you get started and go from coding n00b to ninja.
Awesome Sauce: If you’re artsy, like comic books and want to learn programming in a very “non-programmatic” way, this is the real deal.
Awesome Sauce: A great, straightforward approach. Also includes practice questions to test your knowledge of each chapter.
Awesome Sauce: If you learn well by watching others. This is a great set of video tutorials.
Okey, Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby made it for me. Seriously. By an artist for artists. My choice is done, Ruby it is.
Yay! Ruby is great and Why’s Poignant Guide is completely and utterly unique. I’ve never seen programming explained in a similar way and I agree — it’s perfect for artists. Good luck and let us know how it goes!