markgandolfo/survey

## survey
What did you do to get good at Rails?

Built an online store, i jumped in the deep end, but after two months part time on rails, i got a cool little app working.
From there, i kept building apps, and helping out on #rubyonrails

Who taught you what you know?

the crew at #rubyonrails, mainly you.

Do you have any fond (or not so fond) memories of your learning experiences?

Not really knowing what to search for in google sucked. It took a long time to work out how to do simple things, like debug.. In other languages, you can generally output to the browser in either the model, view or controller. in rails it wasn't that simple. I found debug() but, generally i use raise() in controller, and debug() in views.

also, understanding the stack was difficult, like "response", "session", "cookies", etc. Also the railsguides weren't out then, and the API was difficult to read as a newbie since it was very jargon heavy.. its much easier now.. but book.cakephp.org is a good example of documentation.

What was your first production app and what did you learn from it?

a simple blog, and I learnt the basic mvc stack in rails, how it tied together, etc.
the online store was a bit more crazy, i learnt how rails uses sessions, monkey patching, using gem's and plugins. etc. etc.

What tools do you use to make your life easier?

a decent editor (textmate) firefox, and firebug, html validator. console, is a massive help. i miss it in other languages.

What did you find particularly hard to grok when learning Rails?

yes, and moving from language to language it still takes me a while to change mindset from traditional c based languages.

When did you start on Rails?

about 2 years ago

Did you learn Ruby first or try to jump straight into Rails?

straight into rails, and ruby after that.

Did you read any books to get good at Rails?

not really, although i bought the pickaxe and rails for php devlopers. I rarely picked up the pickaxe, and mainly searched online. and rails for php devs was ok, but the book took 6 weeks to arrive, and in that time i had a ok grasp on most of the basics.
	What did you do to get good at Rails?

	Built an online store, i jumped in the deep end, but after two months part time on rails, i got a cool little app working.
	From there, i kept building apps, and helping out on #rubyonrails

	Who taught you what you know?

	the crew at #rubyonrails, mainly you.

	Do you have any fond (or not so fond) memories of your learning experiences?

	Not really knowing what to search for in google sucked. It took a long time to work out how to do simple things, like debug.. In other languages, you can generally output to the browser in either the model, view or controller. in rails it wasn't that simple. I found debug() but, generally i use raise() in controller, and debug() in views.

	also, understanding the stack was difficult, like "response", "session", "cookies", etc. Also the railsguides weren't out then, and the API was difficult to read as a newbie since it was very jargon heavy.. its much easier now.. but book.cakephp.org is a good example of documentation.

	What was your first production app and what did you learn from it?

	a simple blog, and I learnt the basic mvc stack in rails, how it tied together, etc.
	the online store was a bit more crazy, i learnt how rails uses sessions, monkey patching, using gem's and plugins. etc. etc.

	What tools do you use to make your life easier?

	a decent editor (textmate) firefox, and firebug, html validator. console, is a massive help. i miss it in other languages.

	What did you find particularly hard to grok when learning Rails?

	yes, and moving from language to language it still takes me a while to change mindset from traditional c based languages.

	When did you start on Rails?

	about 2 years ago

	Did you learn Ruby first or try to jump straight into Rails?

	straight into rails, and ruby after that.

	Did you read any books to get good at Rails?

	not really, although i bought the pickaxe and rails for php devlopers. I rarely picked up the pickaxe, and mainly searched online. and rails for php devs was ok, but the book took 6 weeks to arrive, and in that time i had a ok grasp on most of the basics.