What did you do to get good at Rails?
In order...
- Got good at Ruby (read the pickaxe cover-to-cover).
- Read a Rails tutorial (AWDwR).
- Found a cooperative commercial client to write an actual application for (and billed him at reduced rates because I was learning).
- Found every forum I could online to find people asking questions, then researched (mainly in the Rails source) and answered questions I was pretty sure of. Waited for others to answer questions I wasn't sure of and checked my answers against theirs.
Who taught you what you know?
99.999% me, and damn proud of it!
Props go to Josh Susser as well for his generous help on my very first Rails application (yes, it was a CMS :) where I had a self-referential, many-many, polymorphic association. I learnt a lot at a time when I knew very little.
Do you have any fond (or not so fond) memories of your learning experiences?
Yes, thinking Rails was a magic pill and fucking up my second commercial project with a massive under-quote/estimate. Lost a client and a friend in the process.
What was your first production app and what did you learn from it?
Freedraw. And I learnt that if you build it, they will come, and then quickly become disinterested and leave :)
Actually, what I really learnt is that building apps is a LOT more fun than owning/running/maintaining apps.
What tools do you use to make your life easier?
Oh, great question, I love flame wars :)
Vim, ctags, bash.
What did you find particularly hard to grok when learning Rails?
Nothing, seriously it's a piece of piss. Or in other words, it's a really consistent, predictable framework that's easy for any programmer to learn. If you have any trouble with Rails itself then find a different occupation.
When did you start on Rails?
March 2006
Did you learn Ruby first or try to jump straight into Rails?
Hey, this was reading like a conversation until this question. As I've already told you, I learnt Ruby first.
Did you read any books to get good at Rails?
Oh man, you're just not listening!
What system do you use?
I switched to a Mac from Gentoo Linux not too long after starting with Rails so I could be like all my Rails idols.
What editor do you prefer?
The best one in the world vim (or more accurately, MacVim - props to those guys it's a nice port).