Teaching Myself Ruby on Rails Programming

Recently I started on my venture to teach myself Ruby on Rails. Coming from a LAMP background I find it not so easy to adapt tot. The code is more complex, but the actual product seems to be what I have been looking for in regards to having  community support. RoR seems to be more of a programming movement. You can free tutorials all over the internet with a simple Google search. Below are some sites that I recommend to beginners. They have helped me grasp a better understanding of Ruby (and Ruby on Rails). I so used to front-end development, it's like I starting all over again. It reminds me of being in HS back in the day and learning how to program PASCAL. The lack luster of design and more of commend coding somehow is intimidating at first. Coming from PHP where there are a lot of free templates and design layouts out there really pushed the urge to be graphically in tuned. But after my first week of studying RoR, I feel like I was missing the real development aspect of websites. Sure its easy to grab some code from one site and alter it for your own benefit, but to actually write everything yourself and see the fruition of your ideas at work seems to be more fulfilling.

Another thing that I like with RoR is that I feel I'm going to be apart of something. Some sort of movement to make websites better and more intuitive. With so many PHP developers in the world I always got the feeling that I was not being innovative in any kind of way. PHP developers are a dime a dozen, whereas RoR are a rare breed. Not saying that I do not like PHP any more and i'm moving over completely to the "Ruby"-side, but  I have always felt the need to do something that not everyone was doing. So somehow my efforts in creation meant that I had to change the way things were done in order for it to mean something to me.

RoR is not easy to learn, by no means. I have a deadline to get a MVP developed and now since, college is over for the summer, I will be getting deeper and deeper in my efforts to develop this new product. Speaking of which, Why are developers so hard to find these days?

Training Links:
- TryRuby.org - Very basic training, but very good at explaining what RoR is.
- TheNewBoston.org/tutorials.php - This guys tutorials are right on point for the beginner. He has 32 videos that walk you through step by step.
- RailsforZombies.com - Very informative. You must know some Ruby before you start here. The course goes right into writing code and giving examples of the possibilities of RoR

As I learn more about RoR I will be posting my findings. If you have any questions, or If you can offer any help, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks!