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Chris Galatis
3,089 PointsI have finished the Ruby beginner track, what is the next track or course I should move on to?
I would like to stay and learn more ruby before I go forward and do any work with Rails. Since I have finished the track for ruby what other tracks or courses should I take, and in what order I should take them? I am going through the ruby foundation library now but not sure what course to take next thank you.
Jayson Ash
3,501 PointsThis is a good question. I too finished the Ruby track and decided to use the new skill in a simple console game project as part of the career program requirements, but I would like to know what other options exist as well.
3 Answers
Andrew Stelmach
12,583 PointsHi, I've been hacking away on my own with Rails and Ruby for about a year. Next week I start a coding bootcamp in London :-)
My advice would be to do more Ruby. Do as much Ruby as possible, ideally exhausting ALL of the Ruby courses here before moving onto Rails. I didn't do this, but I wish I had. Rails will confuse the hell out of you, yet it's possible to make some decent apps with Rails pretty quickly. However, that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, but that's what I did.
In retrospect, I wish I had done as much Ruby as possible, writing programs in Ruby. Treehouse doesn't do a great job at this. I would recommend doing all of the pure Ruby stuff on Treehouse, then going through Chris Pine's 'Learn to Program' book, then move onto the 'Well Grounded Rubyist' book, and go through all of that.
THEN move onto building some simple apps using Sinatra (but I don't know what resources to recommend for that) - this is because it's a kind of like a lightweight Rails. Make sure you follow TDD (test-driven-development) from the START.
Do all of that SLOWLY, and make sure you understand EVERYTHING.
It's hard, and it's hard not to jump ahead and start throwing apps together using Rails.
Once you've done all that, you might consider moving onto Rails.
These are lessons I've learned the hard way. I didn't do the above, and now have massive gaps in my knowledge that I'm trying to fill.
Treehouse and many others (One Month Rails being a prime example) are guilty of making you think you should jump into Rails and start making apps. They do this because it provides Instant Gratification and therefore more sales. Rein it in; stay focussed and take things slow; a bit like when you find a really special woman who you know is going to benefit you for years, take things slow and build the relationship up carefully and slowly, so you end up with something wonderful, rather than something that's full of holes :-)
Good luck, young Jedi!
Chris Galatis
3,089 PointsI would like to stick with Ruby before going forward onto Rails. I guess my personal/professional goals would be to learn ruby proficiently then move on to rails and eventually find a job. I see there are other ruby workshops and courses listed in the library but I am not sure in what order to start taking those courses.
Owen Tran
6,822 PointsI would say "ruby foundations", you will know most of this by now but there is some stuff at the end that will be new to you. If you are feeling very confident, just skip to the challenges.
On another note, you really don't have to be a "ruby ninja" to start learning rails. When you're at the stage where you can read ruby code and know what it does then that's probably enough. And really pay attention to how to look up documentation. Spend some time on this, it will serve you well in the future.
Elias Schroons
4,377 PointsElias Schroons
4,377 PointsWhat are your personal (or professional) goals? Given that answer might be better to see which course or track would be a strategic move for you to take.