为什么对Ruby感兴趣
最近我对Ruby产生了浓厚兴趣。之前学过一段时间的Python，感觉Python虽然用途比Ruby更广泛，却不适合我。
Python的哲学是：
Python的创造者认为一定有一种最佳的方法去完成某件事。这种哲学有点过于死板，也不符合现实。
Perl的格言是：
Larry Wall认为可以用许多不同的方法，去完成同一件事情。显然，我是更认同Perl的哲学的。
Ruby的格言是，程序员之友（A Programmer’s Best Friend）。Ruby是以人为中心，为程序员的方便而创造的编程语言。
Ruby继承了很多Perl的精华和哲学。所以，相对Python，我更喜欢Ruby。
别人是怎么学Ruby的
不同的人有不同的背景，有不同的学习方式。
这里有一大堆Rails社区中的领军人物说他们是怎么学会Ruby和Rails的：
- DHH: I learned Ruby by programming in anger. Attempting to make something real. Not just a toy program.
- David Black: I learned ruby via pickaxe and lots of practice and both reading and answering questions on ruby-talk.
- Evan Phoenix: reading code WHILE writing code
- Yehuda Katz: I tried impossibly hard things to force myself to learn.
- Laurent Sansonetti: I learned ruby via pickaxe, reading the posts on ruby-talk and then reading MRI’s source code
- Ninh Bui: I was quite a java fanboy back, writing struts + j2ee enterprise apps, Hongli forced me to look at Ruby over a weekend and I learned the Ruby basics. I then learned Rails by googling, reading books and source code.
- Tim Connor: the rails community habit of obsessively blogging was probably the biggest help
- Lar Van Der Jagt: Ryan Bates’s railscasts for sure. The Rails Way once I knew enough to dig deeper. What I wish I’d done tho is work with experts!
- Arun Gupta: The Rails guides and Agile Development with Rails book.
- Geoffrey Grosenbach: After I had read a few tutorials, I started by spending a few hours reading through the API docs. Even if you don’t understand everything, it’s a fantastic way to become familiar with what’s available.
- Nate Todd: I learned MVC with a few CakePHP apps first. It helped me learn best practices in a language I was familiar with.
- Chris Wanstrath: I learned Ruby on Rails by writing apps and reading the framework’s source.
从他们的经验里，我学到的是，最佳的学习方式是自己写实用的代码，其次是读别人写的好代码，再其次是读经典的好书。
别人的建议
- Bob Martens: Get involved in the community in some way. They know more than you. ;)
- Ismael Celis: understanding the relationship between the parts of MVC. Loads of people coming to Rails don’t know what a design pattern is.
- @jeromegn: I find the best trick to learn RoR is to simply try building something. Rails docs and learning Ruby in parallel helped me the most
- @johnbender: knowing why instance vars are available in templates, etc. Essentially knowing the basics of ruby would be my initial advice
- @ryandotsmith: writers read. Find popular projects on github (i.e. radiant ) and study their specs.
- Sunil Karkera: understanding MVC in Rails was the most important thing for me when I started.
- Luke Burton: basic screencasts showing something impressive being achieved in small amounts of code were a great start
- DHH: Pick a real project and program in anger. That’s how I’d recommend learning any language including Rails and Ruby.
- Anthony Green: Accept that there’s a Rails Way and you need to learn it. What helped me most ? - the community.
- Kent Fenwick: Learn by doing a REAL project. Pick something you want to build and slowly chip away at it.
- Trevor Turk: learn by reading and writing codes meaning you should try to build something you want instead of dumbly following tutorials.
- Ryan Bates: Rails is made up of many technologies (HTML, CSS, Ruby, OOP, SQL, etc.). If you’re struggling with Rails, focus on weakest part.
- Geoffrey Grosenbach: And there are many examples throughout that will help a new developer get a feel for the philosophy of Rails. Many people have learned from the Rails from Scratch series at PeepCode
- @eifon: A good grasp of MVC is invaluable as is knowing some Ruby before you start.
- John Yerhot: don’t be afraid to ask questions and use support channels - irc, mail list, rails bridge, etc.
- Roy Wright: use the same version of rails as is in the book you are using.
- @brianthecoder: read other people’s code
- Ninh Bui: I learned by having discussions with a lot of people, I can definitely recommend that
- Chris Wanstrath: Stop asking other people for advice and start coding something.
最后一条建议是，不要去寻求别人的建议了，现在就开始写点代码吧。所以说，编程这件事，终极建议仍然是，写代码。代码写的越多，编程水平越高。
读完这一堆的建议，我得到的感悟是：
- 自己写代码最重要。
- 读别人的代码其次。
- 理解MVC是什么也很重要。
到哪里去找别人的代码读，Github是最佳场所。注意别人是怎么解决你所解决不了的问题的。当然，先要自己写点代码才会有解决不了的问题。
How Person 和 Why Person
- How Person: 喜欢问要怎样做的人。别人做一遍给他看，他就学会了。
- Why Person: 喜欢问是为什么的人。首先得理解了为什么要那样做，然后才能去做。
How Person应该看railscasts，读Ruby on Rails Guides。还有这里http://www.pragprog.com/screencasts。
Why Person应该读Ruby Programming Language和The Well-Grounded Rubyist, aka Ruby for Rails 2nd edition。
我自觉是Why Person。但是看视频和例子，对我也很有帮助。
两本Way书：
- The Ruby Way for Why Person
- The Rails Way for How Person
学习者的境界
第一层，写了一些Rails程序
已经可以熟练编写Rails程序了。还要继续学习，离大师的境界还很远。
问自己一些问题：
- 会写测试吗？
- 会自己写Rails插件吗？
- 会打gem包吗？
- Javascript技术熟不熟悉？
- CSS呢？
- 数据库技术呢？
这时候你还有很多弱点。但你已经可以去贡献一点代码给其他开源项目了。
第二层，写了不少Rails程序，写了一些Rails插件，写了一些Gem包
这时候，你已经对RoR非常熟悉了。可以去读点Ruby的源代码了。
这个时候，该学点其他的编程语言了，如Python，Java，Scala，Clojure，Objective-C，Ocaml，Scheme之类。总之，只要你感兴趣的编程语言，这时都可以学一点。并不一定要成为这些语言的专家，但要试着去理解它们的利与弊。这会拓宽你的视眼，也能加强你的Ruby技术。
也就是说，编程语言的学习，当精通一门之后，就开始多多益善。
第三层，比任何人精通RoR，甚至可以背诵Ruby源码了
这时你应该去试着改善Ruby 1.9，以及其他的Ruby实现，如JRuby，IronRuby，MacRUby和Rubinius。你还应该贡献点代码给Rails 3了。
你已经是大师了。