Frustratingly my laptop has Rails 3 on it, although I cannot find much supporting documentation on how to use Rails 3, excepting the API reference.
There appears to be a significant amount about regarding rails 2.2. Would you recommend downgrading and learning 2.2 or just plough ahead with 3 and hope for the best?
Highly recommend continue with Rails3. No new apps out there are going to be created with Rails 2.3 -- as gems and engines are created and updated, your 2.3 app will get out of date.
The documentation is still coming for Rails3 out on the blogosphere, but searching for "Rails3 where conditions" gives good rails3 results.
If you're willing to buy documentation, Agile Web Development with Rails (4th edition) was quite excellent in its first edition, and was how I learned. Its 4th version covers rails 3.
If you don't have any experience yet, you'd better start with the latest version. As for no documentation, how about Rails Guides? I think that's pretty awesome.
If you really are stuck with Rails 3, at least use Rails 2.3.x instead of 2.2.
Rails tends to move pretty fast, so it hard for the documentation to keep up. This is a known problem though, and http://railstutorial.org/ was made to be a comprehensive tutorial that will be maintained by the rails evangelism team. (you can buy the book/screencast, or just go to the "book" link on the menubar, it is freely available there)
Rails 3 was a great release, I would recommend sticking with it if at all possible.
As captaintokyo and Jesse Wolgamott I strongly encourage you to use Rails3. Another great ressource to learn about Rails3 is http://railstutorial.org/ .
I agree, start learning on Rails 3. Everything is moving that way quickly.
If you knew you were going to be working on rails 2.* applications (you were starting a new job next month and they had rails 2 apps already installed and were not upgrading them this year) is the only reason I would give to start with 2.*.
Related
I had always dreamed about learning rails and the ruby language, but there seems to be a big change comming with the new rails 3 release. So are there generally huge differences between 2 and 3? Should i probably start with rails 3 when books are available since this is the way i learn the best?
Indeed, the best targets are Rails 3 and Ruby 1.9.2, especially if you need to start a new project or learning a new language.
If you are completely unfamiliar with both Ruby and Rails, then you first need to start with Ruby before working with Rails. For the time you will be more acquainted with Ruby, chances are most of the Rails 3 books will be released or in beta version.
In fact, there are several Rails 3 books almost finished. Agile Web Development with Rails and The Rails 3 Way are probably the most effective examples. By the way, you can already start learning Rails 3 right now. Rails has great documentation ;)
You can start learning Rails 3 now, there are plenty of resources already on the net, e.g. here: http://railsnotes.com/rails-3/
You could also pick up the beta version of Agile Web Development http://pragprog.com/titles/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails
Don't underestimate the value of online documentation!
I heard Rails 3 is almost ready to be released from beta, meaning its a stable version. But of course the real date still unknown.
So I'm looking for advice from a good RoR developer. Do you think I should learn and use Rails 3 RC version or use Rails 2.3.8? If I use the RC version now will it be hard to upgrade to the stable Rails 3 version?
Is there a decent RoR developer out there than can offer some guidance?
Thanks.
I don't know what a rock developer (!) is, but I'd recommend going with Rails 3 rather than Rails 2.x. Rails 3 represents the future direction of Ruby on Rails, so it's worth getting up to speed with it as soon as you can. To be frank, Rails 2.x is now an evolutionary dead-end. There shouldn't be any significant changes between the Rails 3 Release Candidate and the final version.
The barriers to adopting Rails 3 you might encounter are:
its availability on your production stack
plugin/gem compatibility
For the first issue, I know that the popular Heroku for example are tracking the Rails 3 beta releases pretty closely. Regarding the second issue, not all plugins or gems are compatible at the moment, but a lot of the most popular ones are. If there are specific plugins or gems that you need to use then check here.
If you need to get a project off the ground now, then by all means go with Rails 2.3.8. It's the safe choice.
There are some significant changes in Rails 3. Some tools will be available to help you upgrade. But no automated tool will ever completely convert your 2.3.8 application to Rails 3. It's hard to tell how much effort is involved, that really depends on your application.
That said, if you are new, learning, and not expecting to release anything for several months, Rails 3 is the right choice. By the time your grok Rails and have something in production, Rails 3 will likely have stabilized, and nobody will be looking back.
Use rails 3!! The RC is still in the pipeline, but it's more or less good to go and you won't need to make any code changes when the final release is made
Here are some reasonable resources to get you started with it
http://railscasts.com
http://www.railsdispatch.com/
http://www.teachmetocode.com/
http://rubyonrails.org/screencasts/rails3/
I have started with Ruby and Rails development and I am a Java developer from the last 2 years (student). I am in for two things:
Learn Ruby
Make my website on ROR
I have Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition.
So, here are my questions:
How is the Agile Web Development with Rails book to start with, where I don't know anything about Ruby and proficient with Java.
What is the difference between 2nd and 3rd edition? People say the changes are irrelevant for a starter, how far is that statement correct?
Should I start with Rails 2.3.4 or Rails 3 (around the corner)? Rails3 It Is!
The Agile book is good, but the 2nd edition is for Rails 1.2 - which is quite old now! You could buy the 3rd edition (which is for Rails 2), but with Rails 3 coming out soon that'll probably also be outdated soon.
My recommendation is the website: http://www.railstutorial.org/book
It's a really well written online book called 'Learning Rails by Example', it gives a thorough introduction to Rails (using the latest Rails 2.3.8). Two of my colleagues have used it recently to get into Rails.
As someone who went on the same path, from java to rails, recently, I'll give my two cents.
Start with whatever version you have book/tutorial/guide for. (assuming it's good book/tutorial/guide, of course) Unfortunately, backwards compatibility is a big problem for rails and I often saw that code examples created just 2-3 years ago need significant fixes to become workable now. And fixing them especially difficult if you're a greenhorn.
As for "Rails 3 is cooler" argument, you could skip it as well and wait for Rails 5. IMHO, if you're doing a website for fun/to learn, both second and third versions will give you basic understanding of the platform and language. And once you know it, 'upgrading' your knowledge to the next version is much simpler than learning it anew.
Good luck with your quest, you'll need a lot of it :)
I don't have the Agile Book, but I can answer question 3.
Firstly, I have no idea why you would start with 2.3.4 when theres 2.3.8 out already.
Secondly, I would might do a little testing and mess around a bit with 2.3.8, but not start anything big and wait for Rails 3. This is because Rails 3 is largely different but better and you will probably want to upgrade an application once it comes out. Hence, it would be smart to wait for Rails 3 to be released before starting any large projects so that you don't have to go through the trouble of upgrading.
As a bit of note on question 1, I have done fine learning without the Agile Book, but there are probably some thing I could pick up better with that book rather than looking things up on Google and the RDoc.
Now that Rails 3.0 beta has been released, should I spend time building my first Rails application on 2.3 or does it make more sense to use the beta?
I'd suggest sticking with the non-beta version (2.3). Chances are tutorials and/or webcasts you might use are for the older version. Go for version 3 only if it includes features you actually need that are not in 2.3.
If you plan on actually building something with Rails, go with version 2.3 because it's, well, not a beta (stable), and because most tutorials are geared towards the 2.x series.
If you're just going to mess with it, I say go with version 3 for two reasons: you'll be better prepared when it does come out, and you get to play with the new features. But if you're not going to do anything serious with it, it doesn't really matter which you pick, so it's your call.
I disagree with other answers. Rails 3 does a number of things differently than 2.3. You should learn right away the new way to code. It's not harder and you won't have time to re-learn in a few short weeks.
Rails 3 beta is stable enough. You will run into few problems.
Your learning. Use something that is stable. Rail 2.3.x is stable and 3.0 is not.
If you are strapped on a deadline for your app, use Rails 2.3.
But I encourage you to use Rails 3.0 as it'll teach you a lot about the framework works when you do encounter problems.
So like many people, I'm excited about Ruby on Rails. Being a Windows user, I downloaded InstantRails, got it going, and followed along with the screencast on how to make a blog with RoR 2.0 in fifteen minutes. I used Notepad++ as my text editor, because that's what I've traditionally used for writing the PHP-based websites I've done in the past. I was a little envious of Mac users and how they get the really attractive-looking TextMate, but I managed to follow through the entire screencast and get everything working smoothly.
However, I was lost most of the time.
I know plenty of programming and scripting languages over the years - C++, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, and Lua just to name a few. I don't know Ruby, but I understand a lot of how it works, as far as the syntax is concerned, but I don't understand a lot of the logic behind why certain files do certain things, and that sort of thing.
Also, I tried Aptana with RadRails, but found it difficult to set up. Is there any concrete tutorial for getting it set up and working fully with Ruby on Rails 2.0?
Should I maybe just wait for more RoR 2.0 tutorials to come out before attempting to learn RoR? Or should I just plow on through and experiment until I figure it out?
Also you may want to look into NetBeans, it has great support for ruby and rails. They also provide several focused tutorials and even viedos.
http://www.netbeans.org/kb/trails/ruby.html
Another excelent source of focused tutorials is http://railscasts.com/ by Ryan Bates.
On the ruby side, I strongly recommend The Ruby Way, and if you are into screencasts, the Pragmatic Programmers have some cheap and excelent ones on ruby object model and metaprogramming by Dave Thomas.
Pragmatic Programmer's Agile Web Development with Rails is an excellent book to get started with.
There is a RoR 2.0 BETA book available as well.
If you are really serious about learning Rails, my advice is to get a good book and read it (I know.. programmers don't read books, but you should!). A "good book on Rails" usually contain a chapter on Ruby, but there are plenty of resources on the web to get you going.
According to Ruby on Rails guides:
It is highly recommended that you
familiarize yourself with Ruby before diving into Rails. You will
find it much easier to follow what's
going on with a Rails application if
you understand basic Ruby syntax.
Rails isn't going to magically
revolutionize the way you write web
applications if you have no experience
with the language it uses.
I'm personally using Simply Rails 2, which uses (surprise, surprise) Rails 2. It walks you through the development of a Digg clone.
If you still don't wanna use a book, you should check out Ruby on Rails guides and the Ruby on Rails Wiki. AFAIK, They are being regularly updated to keep up with new releases of Rails.
The Rails Way is also a good book. I use it everyday as a reference book.
You could always check out the awesome Peepcode screencast series:
Rails 2 from scratch part I
Rails 2 from scratch part II
You'll be off and running in no time after watching those. I would also recommend Railscasts, a (free) weekly screencast on Rails, usually focusing on a single feature or implementing a concept in a wonderfully produced manner.
From what I've read, though, it looks like many of these books and such are now at least partially outdated with the advent of Rails 2.0. Is this true?
InstantRails has not been updated for a while, check out Rubystack, which is a similar project but we also include a bunch of other tools: Apache, MySQL,Imagemagick, etc.