Learning Rails

Other Options

There are lots of different ways to learn Rails. Some people want to learn Ruby in detail before jumping into a framework that uses it. That’s a perfectly good option, and if you want to start that way, you should explore:

• Learning Ruby (O’Reilly, 2007)

• The Ruby Programming Language (O’Reilly, 2008)

• Ruby Pocket Reference (O’Reilly, 2007)

• Programming Ruby, Third Edition (Pragmatic Programmers, 2008)

You may also want to supplement (or replace) this book with other books on Rails. If you want some other resources, you can explore:

• Head First Rails (O’Reilly, 2008), for a much more visual approach with exercises

• Up and Running with Rails, Second Edition (O’Reilly, 2008), for a very quick start

• Simply Rails 2 (SitePoint, 2008) takes a similar approach to Learning Rails, but with different opinions and details

• http://www.learningrails.com, a site with free podcasts and screencasts for getting started in Rails

• The Rails Way (Addison-Wesley, 2007), a big-book reference approach for developers who already know their way

• Rails Pocket Reference (O’Reilly, 2008), a small-book reference

• Agile Web Development with Rails, Third Edition (Pragmatic Programmers, 2008), for a detailed explanation of a wide range of features.

• Enterprise Rails (O’Reilly, 2008), for building large-scale applications

• Advanced Rails (O’Reilly, 2008), for when you want to move to the next level

You’ll want to make sure that whatever books or online documentation you use covers Rails 2.0 or later. Rails’ perpetual evolution ...