
RubyMonk - jfaucett
http://rubymonk.com/
======
manish_gill
Just started getting into Ruby myself, and I used Ruby Koans
(<http://rubykoans.com>).

Without a doubt the quickest I've ever learned a language. It's such a great
way to get your feet wet. No explanations, no nothing. Just dive right into
the code and start fixing the errors. You learn a surprising amount in a very
short period (took me 2 days to finish 200 koans in my free time).

I've searched for similar stuff for other languages as well. Only found for
Python so far. So if anyone knows about these type of tuts for other
languages, please share. :)

~~~
jballanc
Lua has probably the best "Koans" type problem set I've seen, but they call
them "missions": <https://github.com/kikito/lua_missions> . What really sets
the Lua missions apart is that it tells an actually story, of sorts, and there
is a genuine moment of enlightenment toward the end.

For Clojure there's the entire functional-koans Github account full of good
stuff: <https://github.com/functional-koans> . Also, don't miss 4Clojure:
<http://www.4clojure.com/>

~~~
manish_gill
Awesome, thanks! Will definitely try the Clojure ones after I finish going
through SICP. :)

For Python beginners, try these: <https://github.com/gregmalcolm/python_koans>

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delano
What's better than stuffing garish Share on Twitter/Facebook icons around your
content? Overloading highlighted text to share itself when you click it. Very
cool.

[http://rubymonk.com/learning/books/1/chapters/6-objects/less...](http://rubymonk.com/learning/books/1/chapters/6-objects/lessons/35-introduction-
to-objects)

~~~
abhinavg
This reminds me of this book I purchased on Kindle a while ago. Every time the
author made a remark that he felt was "quote-worthy," he would highlight it
and add a link to share it on Twitter or Facebook (hashtags and all).

I returned the book.

~~~
jfaucett
I like it. I think it looks and feels much much better than the standard
ubiquitous twitter/fb logos.

------
Surio
I actually first found Ruby Monk by searching for "Perl Monk for ruby", so in
a way, the name works to their advantage. I know that this site kept coming up
on HN radar frequently (in the last year at least) on various occasions, and I
am finally glad it has found its own steam at last. :-)

I found Sidu Ponnappa (the guy behind this) to be quite active on many
areas/forums/discussion topics (Wonder where/how he finds the time (-: I mean
it in a nice way). His blog has some very interesting writings/discussions as
well. He's also very vocal about the ongoing state of Indian tech.
entrepreneurship, which is quite rare in the current IT ecosystem in India.

I wish him all the very best with all his endeavours.

EDIT: Not associated with them in any way, although the founder appears
collaboration worthy IMO ;-)

~~~
kaiwren
Wow. Thank you! That's quite a complement, and I'm grateful.

I should point out that much of what I say - or write about - are from
conversations with my colleagues. I just happen to be the most vocal among us
:)

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mikegirouard
I like to see a good amount of competition in the field of learning code.
Everyone seems to have a different approach to things and I think the more
sites like this the better.

This one seems to cater to the reader-types (I'm one of those) so it's sitting
nicely with me. Other people I know seem to prefer video + activity (like Code
School, etc). Having these kinds of options is really nice.

One critique: the name is great but when I read the domain, I thought of Perl
Monks, just ruby flavored. Not sure if that's good or bad -- just an honest
response.

~~~
kaiwren
Thanks for the feedback (I work at C42 Engineering, the programmers collective
behind RubyMonk).

I'd never heard of Perl Monks before you mentioned it - it's something we'll
keep in mind. I'm not sure how it will influence us, but it's good to know.

------
robinho364
I have never seen such a website combine beauty, interesting, and code study
together! I think I will soon be immersed in fun coding!

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diggan
Great site and lovely with more sites that teaches people code but I have one
suggestion. Make it clear what you have to pay for and what you can access for
free. At first, I thought the entire site was free but the "Subscribe" page
shows that you can pay $10 for something but not what you will pay for. Please
make this more obvious.

~~~
nicholassmith
I'd also make sure the sub information is a bit more clear, but it's a great
looking site.

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jfaucett
I just stumbled across this site browsing from some other ruby site, and
thought it looked nice and others might enjoy, didn't know the makers where on
HN - great job @kaiwren :)

~~~
kaiwren
No worries, jfaucett. As a bootstrapped startup with no investors and no
connections, we need all the PR we can get :)

So thank you for posting this!

------
z3phyr
RubyMonk rocks!!

Wish there was a HaskellMonk too.. :[

~~~
kaiwren
It'll be a while yet, but there's a reason we've bought that domain :)

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danso
I'm totally unfamiliar with the "Monk" label so maybe this suggestion is
moot...but a page describing the philosophy of the teaching method and who
this book is aimed for would be useful. I'm guessing from the first page
([http://rubymonk.com/learning/books/1/chapters/6-objects/less...](http://rubymonk.com/learning/books/1/chapters/6-objects/lessons/35-introduction-
to-objects)) that this isn't meant for total programming newbies.

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rjbond3rd
Minor point - the quotation at the bottom of the page looks like it's being
attributed to Matz.

~~~
kaiwren
It is. It's what Matz tweeted after we launched RubyMonk at RubyConf in New
Orleans last year. Here's the original tweet he made:
<https://twitter.com/yukihiro_matz/status/126447696478347265>

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danman06
RubyMonk is awesome, it's really helping me to do things the 'ruby way'

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marcelsalathe
Would be great if it worked on iOS devices. Strange enough, the keyboard
doesn't show up when touching a text field.

~~~
kaiwren
It's a known issue with the js code editor we're using and is something that
we need to fix.

Thanks for the heads up!

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coderhs
how come this site got to the front page? the site been here for over year??

~~~
kaiwren
I'm not sure (and I'm not complaining about the publicity :)) - but this is
the third time we've made it to HN. Yes, RubyMonk was launched in August 2011,
so we've been around for over a year.

