Recent Entries

Rails 3 on Ubuntu 10.4 with a side of RVM

Hey Ruby folks. I wrote this up the other day, after being disappointed by all the other tutorials out there. Now I am sharing, with you!
This isn't 100% newbie friendly, but if you're comfy enough in the command line or you don't want to deviate too much from what I've presented you should be fine. Please note that this is Rails 3 which is still in beta, it can be a bit of a moving target.

* See Other Notes at the bottom for some modifications for gedit to be more like Textmate, handy for Linux users!

( Rails 3 on Ubuntu 10.4 with a side of RVM )

Entry tags:

tutorials:beginners

Model-view-controller: what goes where

In a Rails application, most of your code is divided into three main sections: the models, the controllers, and the views. Which code goes where is one of those things that can be a little confusing when you're getting started with Rails.

( MVC FTW? )

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Blocks for beginners

Blocks are tricky to wrap your brain around and hard to explain, but they're very, very useful, so you'll probably have to tackle them sooner or later.

( Read more... )

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Symbols!

Symbols in Ruby are the things that start with colons: :name, :muffins, :buffy_the_vampire_slayer. They can be a little tough to wrap your brain around (they confused the heck out of me for a while), so I thought I'd do a rundown.

( mmm, :muffins )

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Instance variables in Ruby and Rails

I was trying to explain this to someone earlier while doing a couple other things and was making a muddle of it. So here's a somewhat-more-coherent explanation:

( instance variables, class variables, Batman, Spock and cloning )

Let me know if you have any questions, additions or corrections!

Welcome!

I've picked up a lot (I hope!) about Ruby and Rails in the last year, but I know how intimidating it can be when you're a beginner and you run into a problem or are working on something by yourself and need advice. Questions, tips and discussion are welcome, and feel free to ask for help even/especially if you're just starting out!