me

def Great Way to Learn Ruby (for Programmers)

posted_by :Amos, :on => 'January 14th, 2007'

I have found the perfect way to learn ruby. Code Golf! Now I know those of you out there who know about Code Golf, and about programming are thinking, OMG what is this guy thinking, but bear with me.

I’m not suggesting try to learn to program by sitting down and actually trying to write your code in the smallest number of bytes possible. That just creates unreadable code that is a nightmare to trouble shoot. Just use the functionality of Code Golf to help you.

I have a terrible time just reading a programming book and getting anything out of it. I have to have a project to code. Something small that can be done quickly, and I can learn a little at a time. Code Golf does exactly that for me. Each of their problems gives me something to work on.

The best part is, Code Golf checks my answer. It reminds me a lot of a TA in college, but you don’t have to pay to have them look at your code output. You code, and submit, and there is imediate feedback if your answer doesn’t match the expected output. Granted it doesn’t grade your code, and tell you about coding conventions, but every output must be precise.

May I remind you that you can just output the entire answer, but it won’t do you much good, and if you have no experience with programming this may be a tough way to start.

tags = %w( learning ruby )
{ |it| digg it }
self.add_to_delicious

end

3 Responses to “Great Way to Learn Ruby (for Programmers)”

  1. deush Says:
    January 14th, 2007 at 10:46 PM The Code golf site is http://codegolf.com/ instead of http://codegold.com/. Great link BTW, thanks.
  2. Bob Says:
    January 15th, 2007 at 03:32 AM The output checking is a useful feature. But I think the Ruby Quiz is a better tool to help with learning. http://rubyquiz.com/ You can read one of the older problems, implement a solution, and then read others' solutions. That last step is helpful, as it's likely to reveal techniques that you may not have been aware of. And you can participate in the ongoing quizzes as well. The added element of doing things publicly adds another dimension to the process.
  3. Amos Says:
    January 16th, 2007 at 02:47 AM Oops, sorry about the link issue. I guess my typing isn't that great all the time. I have updated it in the article.

Sorry, comments are closed for this article.

end