[ale] semi [OT] making learning ruby programming fun?

Ron Frazier (ALE) atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
Wed Mar 27 13:20:07 EDT 2013


Hi Allan,

Thanks for that link.  I'll probably use that as well once I get into it 
a bit.  Looks very cool.  I found the Emerald City meetup online and am 
considering coming over there.  It looks like you guys are into the 9th 
session on rails or something, so I may have to wait until you get into 
introductory material again to understand much of it.

Sincerely,

Ron

On 3/27/2013 11:35 AM, Allan Davis wrote:
> One of the tools Alan Hecht and I use when we teach ruby at Emerald 
> City is the Ruby Koans(http://rubykoans.com/).  This is Test Driven 
> Learning, which means it's a set of unit test that work you through 
> learning ruby.
>
> Thanks,
> Allan Davis
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 10:53 AM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com 
> <mailto:doughalldev at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I love Ruby. Ruby's creator's motivation was to write a language
>     that make people happy using it. You may not get paid a lot of
>     money for Ruby, but take it from a former Oracle DBA, the people
>     who get paid a lot of money for maintaining Oracle, is because
>     nobody with a creative brain would enjoy such monotony, and such a
>     feeling of helplessness. Once you go ORACLE, you have to go ORACLE
>     all the way. Reading their documentation is like Alice in
>     Wonderland. Once you go down the rabbit hole, it's difficult to
>     get out.
>
>     But Python is also a good language. I agree with Charles that
>     whitespace should not be a deal breaker. Also, programming GUIs
>     with Python is a bit easier and more flexible. Both languages have
>     lots of good libraries.
>
>     Doug
>
>
>     On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 8:21 AM, Charles Shapiro
>     <hooterpincher at gmail.com <mailto:hooterpincher at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         My $0.02:  Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby (
>         http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/ ).  One of the more
>         unusual language textbooks you will encounter.
>
>         btw I enjoy C, C++, Python, SQL, shell, and several other
>         languages about equally.  I dunno why Python's caring about
>         whitespace is a deal-breaker for Mr. Frazier.
>
>         -- CHS
>
>
>
>         On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 9:29 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
>         <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
>         <mailto:atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>> wrote:
>
>             Hi Scott,
>
>             I understand what you're saying.  Heck, if someone wants
>             to pay me to learn it, then I will.  At the moment,
>             though, I've uninstalled Java on all my Windows machines
>             and am trying to figure out how to do so in Linux because
>             of the security risks of having it on my system.  If I
>             have to learn it, or use it, I might have to do so in a
>             purpose built VM.
>
>             I have heard that the Java syntax is more obtuse and
>             verbose and that the object model is harder to follow than
>             some others.  I get the impression that you have to type a
>             whole lot more and it's a lot more cryptic to get
>             something done, versus, say, Go or Ruby.  That's just from
>             memory and I cannot remember the source.  There may have
>             been multiple sources.  But, I don't have any personal
>             experience with it.
>
>             Sincerely,
>
>             Ron
>
>
>
>             Scott Plante <splante at insightsys.com
>             <mailto:splante at insightsys.com>> wrote:
>
>             >There are probably some good reasons not to pick Java as
>             the modern
>             >language you want to learn, but "security problems" is
>             not one of them.
>             >There have been several security holes found lately, but
>             they relate to
>             >running un-trusted Java in the browser. Almost all the
>             Java jobs
>             >revolve around writing Java on the server, and
>             practically all the rest
>             >are Java applications on the desktop or as a trusted
>             applet or
>             >browser-launched application.
>             >
>             >
>             >It's a very hard problem to allow random, un-trusted code
>             to run on
>             >your computer and yet prevent it from doing any harm.
>             It's a bit easier
>             >if you have an extremely limited language that doesn't do
>             much anyway.
>             >They're constantly finding security holes in JavaScript,
>             Flash, and
>             >ActiveX, too. That's not meant to be an excuse and
>             vendors do try to
>             >fix holes as quickly as possible, with differing levels
>             of competency .
>             >Also, these holes weren't in "Java" per se, but in the
>             Oracle JVM. Some
>             >of them might also have been in, say, the IBM JVM or
>             JRocket JVM since
>             >there is code sharing between projects. But they were
>             probably not in
>             >Google's Dalvik JVM (since they don't do applets), even
>             though for
>             >Android you write in the Java language (more or less).
>             >
>             >
>             >In a recent security contest, participants found holes
>             inthe major
>             >browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari and Java
>             and Win 7/8.
>             >Chrome OS did relatively well with only a "partial"
>             exploit. It's not
>             >so much that Java is less secure than JavaScript, it's
>             just that you
>             >can do general browsing these days without Java, but you
>             can't do
>             >without JavaScript.
>             >
>             >
>             >But all these security holes, in a sense, exist in spades
>             for PHP, C,
>             >C++, etc., because they're not even trying to limit what
>             your code can
>             >do. In other words, if the OS allows your user to
>             overwrite a file with
>             >a regular program (not an unsigned applet) written in
>             Java, you can
>             >also overwrite that file with C, PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl,
>             etc. But
>             >they're not security "holes" because the language
>             (including Java) is
>             >making no guarantees in that case. But avoiding Java on
>             the server-side
>             >because of unsigned applet security holes is like
>             choosing a sedan for
>             >highway driving over a crossover, because the crossover
>             gets stuck in
>             >the mud more than a Hummer.
>             >
>             >
>             >Scott
>             >
>             >----- Original Message -----
>             >
>             >From: "Ron Frazier (ALE)"
>             <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
>             <mailto:atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>>
>             >To: "ALE" <ale at ale.org <mailto:ale at ale.org>>
>             >Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 10:39:11 AM
>             >Subject: [ale] semi [OT] making learning ruby programming
>             fun?
>             >
>             >Hi all,
>             >
>             >As some of you know who've been following my prior
>             threads, I've had a
>             >long time interest in learning a modern programming
>             language. I've had
>             >difficulty putting the proper time into the studies, but
>             I'm always
>             >genuinely interested in the information I learn here.
>             Leam had
>             >convinced me that GO was a great language, and I believe
>             it is. I was
>             >going to tackle that, but I have misgivings about its lack of
>             >popularity in the market place.
>             >
>             >According to:
>             >
>             >http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html
>             >
>             >GO ranks between 51 and 100 in usage, and the percentage
>             is so low it's
>             >not listed. So, like it or not, learning GO might be a
>             skill few people
>             >want. I decided to defer that.
>             >
>             >Most recently, I decided to learn the specific language
>             of the
>             >MetaTrader currency trading platform so I can build a
>             tradebot. I am
>             >working on that slowly. Unless I get really good, it is
>             unlikely
>             >someone will hire me for that. The objective would be for
>             the tradebot
>             >to make money using my own account.
>             >
>             >So, I still have an interest in learning a general
>             programming
>             >language.
>             >
>             >I'm interested in a modern garbage collected language,
>             preferably multi
>             >paradigm, with safe I/O and system calls, that can be
>             compiled, and
>             >that doesn't care about white space.
>             >
>             >See this comparison:
>             >
>             >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_programming_languages
>             >
>             >I've chosen Ruby as my project language.
>             >
>             >According to the link posted above, the top 10 languages,
>             and some of
>             >the reasons I've rejected some of them, are as follows.
>             No offense is
>             >intended to anyone that programs in these languages.
>             >
>             >01) Java - security problems
>             >
>             >02) C - not modern garbage collected
>             >
>             >03) Objective C - Apple centric primarily
>             >
>             >04) C++ - not modern garbage collected
>             >
>             >05) C# - MS centric primarily
>             >
>             >------------
>             >
>             >06) PHP - security problems
>             >per
>             >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Php
>             >"About 30% of all vulnerabilities listed on the National
>             Vulnerability
>             >Database are linked to PHP."
>             >
>             >07) VB - MS centric
>             >
>             >08) Python - cares about white space
>             >
>             >09) Ruby - This is my choice.
>             >
>             >10) Perl - does not have safe I/O and system calls
>             >per
>             >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_programming_languages
>             >
>             >-------------
>             >
>             >So, having said all that, I have some Ruby questions.
>             >
>             >A) I have the "PickAxe" book on Ruby 1.9 by Dave Thomas.
>             Is that a good
>             >resource for learning, or do I need to upgrade to a Ruby
>             2.0 book now
>             >that version 2 is out?
>             >
>             >B) Does anyone have any experience compiling Ruby either
>             through
>             >Rubinius or JRuby or otherwise?
>             >
>             >See
>             http://patshaughnessy.net/2012/2/15/is-ruby-interpreted-or-compiled
>             >
>             >
>             >Finally, I've observed that reading one of these
>             programming books is
>             >about as much fun as reading the US tax code. You get a
>             thousand little
>             >examples of things like using for next loops to do a
>             factorial. Now
>             >that's exciting. I've seen maybe 1 of 100 books,
>             primarily from Deitel
>             >and Deitel or the Head First series, that make learning
>             programming
>             >fun. They present you with real world applications,
>             simplified, that
>             >are interesting. They let you get something you can
>             interact with on
>             >the screen quickly and work on learning how it works and
>             tweaking it.
>             >For example, a simulator of an ATM machine. An actual
>             working realistic
>             >program.
>             >
>             >C) So, does ANYONE know of a Ruby book that would make
>             learning the
>             >language FUN, or at least moderately interesting?
>             >
>             >As always, any help is appreciated.
>             >
>             >Sincerely,
>             >
>             >Ron
>             >
>             >
>             >
>             >--
>             >
>             >Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth
>             keyboard and K-9
>             >Mail.
>             >Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the
>             touch screen.
>             >
>             >(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you
>             might want to
>             >
>             >call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from
>             alternate energy
>             >
>             >mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email
>             messages very
>             >quickly.)
>             >
>             >Ron Frazier
>             >770-205-9422 <tel:770-205-9422> (O) Leave a message.
>             >linuxdude AT techstarship.com <http://techstarship.com>
>             >
>             >
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>             >
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>             >
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>
>             --
>
>             Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth
>             keyboard and K-9 Mail.
>             Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the
>             touch screen.
>
>             (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you
>             might want to
>             call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from
>             alternate energy
>             mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email
>             messages very quickly.)
>
>             Ron Frazier
>             770-205-9422 <tel:770-205-9422> (O)   Leave a message.
>             linuxdude AT techstarship.com <http://techstarship.com>
>
>
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>
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>
> -- 
> _______________________
> Allan Davis
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/cajuncode
>
>
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-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com

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