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Ruby

Posted by Chris George
Chris George
9,373 Points

Can I start the 'learn rails' track without going though the learn ruby track?

Just wanted to know if maybe I get more out of starting with the learn ruby track before the learn rails track. Any feedback from people that have taken either track would be appreciated.

1 Answer

Ken Alger
STAFF
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher
Ken Alger
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher

Chris;

For what it is worth, I took the Rails track prior to taking the Learn Ruby and at times felt lost. Granted this was early on in my Treehouse experience, but I think that if one doesn't have a reasonably decent grasp on programming in general learning a framework will be more difficult without knowing the language.

I would certainly say to go through the Learn Ruby track first. If you look at the Rails course outline, there are some other non-Ruby topics covered that you can certainly "pickup" along the way as well.

Just my thoughts.

Ken

Chris George
Chris George
9,373 Points

Hey Ken Thanks for the reply. I feel as though I am pretty comfortable with the basics of programming in general since I have gone through all of it with the swift course. Is it just syntax at this point or do some of the topics covered in the rails course imply some previous knowledge of ruby in particular? Thanks again. Chris

Ken Alger
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher
Ken Alger
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher

Chris;

If you have a good grasp on OOP the syntax will probably be one of the major hurdles. Jason does a good job in the Rails courses in covering the Ruby as needed and in the Rails track you get exposure to Ruby prior to diving deep into Rails. That being said, if you want to learn Rails, certainly do that track. If there is a Ruby concept you are struggling with, zip over to the Library and take a course on that topic.

Best of luck and happy coding,

Ken

Chris George
Chris George
9,373 Points

Thank you!

Justin Black
Justin Black
24,793 Points
Justin Black
Justin Black
24,793 Points

I'd like to add that while yes you can, you shouldn't. I recommend this to people learning frameworks for other languages too, like laravel or symfony, and jquery..

always, and i mean ALWAYS learn the base language first. It's like learning how to bake a cake before you have an oven. Sure you can do it, but it is going to be difficult. Learn the core language prior to learning the tools available to you.

Chris George
Chris George
9,373 Points

Thanks for the input Justin. Will do!