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Joseph Koch
3,393 PointsDifficulty understanding Rails 4
I am going to be completely honest in this post. So I have been taking the Ruby on Rails track. I come from a web development background so I am very used to doing web development with HTML and server-side scripting. However, Rails is much different than what I am used to. It makes it hard on me when attempting to learn this language - I am having a hard time understanding how Rails works. I am on the Build a Todo List Application with Rails 4 course. In this course with Jason Seifer I feel like he is just writing a bunch of Ruby code really fast without even explaining it well. Thus, I hardly understand the code other than the fact that it works. I already learned the foundations of Ruby because of the earlier classes within the track, which I think I understood well, but his explanations in this section are very poor and I feel like he hardly explains anything very well. Are any of the coding examples he is working through in this section expounded upon in latter sections on this track to make sure the student understands them completely? I would hope so.
Not only because of the brief time Jason is spending on the code examples, but because of the amount of examples I am having a hard time remembering everything. Are the examples given in this course important to memorize? Is it something that just comes with practice?
I am also wanting to learn the web-development side of Ruby. To expound, I'd like to know how to use Ruby with HTML, like let's say submitting forms or whatnot. I know this is possible, but so far have not really learned anything about it in this track. Is this track going to teach any of these concepts?
1 Answer
John Blanchard
Courses Plus Student 5,437 PointsI too had a lot of difficulty understanding Ruby and Rails when I first started. I come from a similar background to you, and I can tell you the further I went through the course, the easier I found the information to be understood. I am now at a point where I feel I could be competent in writing my own Rails apps.
Stick with it! It'll get easier and you'll be glad you have all the knowledge once you're done.
Joseph Koch
3,393 PointsThanks for your encouragement. :) Did you memorize what you learned immediately or did it take a lot of practice to memorize how to develop a Ruby on Rails application? How would you say the best way would be for me as a student to go about making my way through this track? Should I write down what I watch or copy what my instructor does along side of him in my own code?
John Blanchard
Courses Plus Student 5,437 PointsIt took me a lot of practice initially, but like any language, the memorization becomes a lot easier over time.
I can't say this is the "best" way, but my usual practice when going through tracks is to write my own code as it happens during the video (I pause quite a bit while I'm coding everything out). I keep two windows open, one with the current Treehouse video, one with Sublime Text. That way, I can follow along with the lesson, but also be writing out what I'm learning and seeing done at the same time.
Joseph Koch
3,393 PointsJohn Blanchard I definitely agree with that as far as the languages I have learned go.
Thanks for the tips, I will definitely try doing it that way. I will continue to go through the track, hopefully by the end of it I will have a better grasp of Ruby than I feel like I have at the moment.
Thanks again for your time.
Chris James
19,102 PointsChris James
19,102 PointsI'm glad someone else is having a similar experience with the Rails courses as I am. I too have a development background and don't seem to have this issue with any of the other courses on treehouse.
As John describes below, I'm also writing out the code whilst I watching the videos (pausing when necessary) but I feel like I'm literally just copying and not understanding. Where are the explanations about what we're doing? And writing out those tests urgh....