Rails & Beyond

How did they learn Rails?

"They" are the core team. Click here to check out their interesting answers.

How did I learn Rails?

I learned as I got new projects. I found myself grappling with e-commerce application issues (not just Rails applications, those monolithic PHP apps too). I really love reinventing the e-commerce wheel so I am building my own platform.

Did I start with the language or did I start with the framework?

Simultaneously learned both.

I am new to Rails. Do I need to read a book?

Highly suggest doing so and start reading the DHH book. The Agile Web Development With Rails book written by David. I knew someone who said he knew Rails without reading ANY book, but naturally he googled the concepts behind Rails because I don't think he's a genius at all.

The most important concepts behind Rails are MVC, REST, DRY, ORM (ActiveRecord).

There's another really good ebook which I am reading right now: Rails 2.1 by Ryan Daigle. Most of what he wrote, I learned as I coded. So by reading this book, you save yourself time googling and thinking too much. The book covers nearly everything from ActiveRecord to debugging your rails application.