[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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>
> --
>
> 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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>
> --
> _______________________
> 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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