I’ve been working hard for the first two weeks of Code Academy to build a solid foundation with Ruby. As I mentioned in my last post, when you work with Rails it can be easy to forget the magic that Ruby is doing behind the scenes.

To make sure that I don’t forget the basics of Ruby, I’ve outlined them over and over. Below is my most basic outline of Ruby concepts that I never want to forget. Some of the examples are taken from the excellent book Learn to Program by Chris Pine.

Arrays and Hashes

Arrays

Create new array and call 0 index:

a = ["scott", "mike", "joe"]
a[0]    # => "scott"

Add to array:

a << "mark"   #or
a[3] = "mark"

Hashes

Create new hash using symbol for key and call:

h = { :dog => "woof", "cat" => "meow" }
h[:dog]    # => "woof"

Add to hash:

h[:cow] = "moo"

Iterators

Each Method (p. 66)

languages.each do |lang|
  puts "I love " + lang
end

Integer Method (p. 67)

3.times do
  puts 'hip-hip-hooray!'
end

Methods

Methods with parameters (p. 76)

def say_moo(number_of_moos)
  puts 'mooooo...'*(number_of_moos)
end

say_moo(3)   # This is the method call with parameter

Initialize method is called automatically when new instance of class is created (p. 132)

Classes

Built in Classes (p. 117)

Typically, you just create new built in classes by setting values:

a = [1, 2, 3]   

But you are actually calling Array.new when you do this:

a = Array.new + [1, 2, 3]

I made it through my first week of Code Academy. Week 1 was all about building a solid foundation with the basics of Ruby. For me, Ruby has been much more difficult to learn than Rails. I think the reason is that learning Ruby can be a bit boring at first. The best way to learn a programming language is to build something with it. Unfortunately, there are not that many interesting things you can build with basic Ruby alone (at least not interesting to me).

With Rails, on the other hand, you can get up and running and build your own blog or small app pretty quickly. If you really want to dive into Rails you can do the awesome Rails Tutorial and build a functioning twitter-like app.

When you’re working with Rails, it’s easy to forget the magic Ruby is doing behind the scenes. You can create a Rails app with very little knowledge of Ruby, but that doesn’t mean that you should. I think that learning Ruby from the ground up will allow me to have a much better understanding of what Rails is actually doing. So for the next week, in addition to class, I’ll be diving deep into Chris Pine’s Learn to Program.

The Code Academy Experience

Beyond getting started with Ruby, the first week of Code Academy was a blast! I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know my classmates in the spring development class. Everyone is focused and interested in learning as much as possible. It was awesome to spend time with so many people who are as interested in web development as I am. I’m really looking forward to the next 10 weeks.

Growing up I always loved technology. When I was about 9 or 10, I remember watching some news on the latest products from the Consumer Electronics Show.

I assumed that we would soon automatically have handheld flat screens that played video and phones that could do live video chat. It didn’t occur to me that actual people had to go out and design and build these things. It turned out that these ideas were never actually produced for any practical use until Apple made them a reality decades later.

If you’ve read Steve Jobs' biography, you know that he faced incredible hurdles with every product he created from the first Apple to the Macintosh to the iPod. Every major Apple product came dangerously close to never coming to life and could have easily been killed without the passion and persistence of Steve Jobs and others at Apple.

It took me a long time to realize that great products are not destined to be built; you have to build them. And if you don’t build them, no one else will.

For the past couple of years I’ve attended the American Bar Association’s Techshow in Chicago. Every year I hope to find software for lawyers that matches what I believe great software should be. But it never appears.

I’ve given up hope that someone else will create the software programs I’m looking for and decided to build them myself. So, for the next 11 weeks I’ll be a student at Code Academy sharpening my programming skills and building awesome applications for attorneys.