

RubyMonk - ruby lessons right in your browser - skyfallsin
http://rubymonk.com

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swanson
You should add the link to the Next Lesson at the bottom of the page (or have
use a fixed layout as you scroll down). I got to the end of Chapter 0 and was
ready to move on, but I couldn't find the Go To Next Chapter button without
looking around.

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kaiwren
Thanks for the heads-up, swanson. We'll add this shortly.

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atldev
I love easy-to-engage sites like this. I have long-time java dev team members
that I've been encouraging to learn ruby. This makes it easy to invite them in
and give them a taste. Array manipulation alone should be enough to pique
interest.

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inuhj
It looks like codecademy.com really dropped the ball with their product. It's
been a while since they released their MVP(emphasis on the 'M') and now
they're being cloned left and right...while they still have yet to add a
single lesson to their 30 minute introduction to javascript.

Congrats on rubymonk. I'll run through it in a bit.

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zds
hi inuhj, i'm one of the cofounders of codecademy. we haven't dropped the ball
- expect an announcement soon!

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wmboy
What I like about rubymonk is it tells you what it expected when you give a
wrong answer. Codeacademy on the other hand just informs you that you were
wrong and gives an extra hint (can be annoying if you perhaps, didn't
understand the question properly and hence leaves you stuck on that question).

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zds
thanks for the tip, wmboy. congrats as well to rubymonk - this is great!

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kaiwren
zds, thank you! We're glad you like RubyMonk.

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jlees
I liked this, but found it hard to retain my interest after the first lessons
until I found the 'problems' section. I tend to learn way better when actively
working on a problem and having to go look things up and learn them to
advance, so I look forward to seeing more problems here.

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kaiwren
Noted, and thank you for the feedback. Please do let us know if there's any
other feedback you have - you can email us at rubymonk@c42.in.

We'll be working on smoothing out the cross references to exercises, so
problems will tell you exactly what exercises you need to read up on so you
can complete them.

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talke
I took all lessons yesterday, and completed the problem. I found some UI
glitches (% of classes completed), and I think that the UX can be improved by
highlighting at any point which lessons/exercises are not done yet - rather
than simply highlighting how many are left.

The problems are valuable, and I enjoyed solving them. I think that you might
want to show multiple alternatives for solving the same problem - that's one
of the cool things about Ruby.

I would love to find something similar to HTML/CSS. I know that codeschool
have an HTML5 one, but unfortunately, I need something more basic :)

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stanley
What are your thoughts on Stanford's Open Classroom HTML courses?

They may not be HTML5, and I have not had a chance to browse codeschool's
offerings, but I'd be curious to hear how it compares in complexity to
Stanford's lectures.

[*]
[http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?...](http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?course=WebApplications)

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vaidy
Very happy to see the C42 guys crystallizing their vision of building their
own products with revenues generated from their own services.

Many many congratulations, Sidu and Team :)

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kaiwren
Thank you vaidy, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the support of folks
like yourself, and the awesome Ruby community in general.

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Alex3917
The problem is that teaching yourself the basics of the language is trivial,
whereas actually getting Ruby and gems working with textmate and then building
real stuff on your own is quite difficult. I already know all the basics of
Ruby, but I can't actually do anything with it, and so this doesn't really
solve my problem.

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jrheard
What do you mean by "I can't actually do anything with it"?

If the problem is that you know what Ruby code looks like but don't feel
comfortable enough to build stuff in it: go build stuff in it. Seriously. Just
go write some code right now, Google around when you get stuck, and half an
hour later you will already be a better programmer.

Do a few <http://projecteuler.net/> problems. Just, like, three or four. Bam:
You've programmed.

Programming can seem like this big, scary thing; it's easy to feel like you're
on the other side of this big huge wall and to say "I don't know how to
program, so I can't program." The catch is, the only way to learn how to
program is to program, and no in-browser language tutorial in the world can
change that. Go for it, and ping me if you get stuck.

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rsvprobin
What I'd like to see from RubyMonk, CodeAcademy, and others, is a good list of
resources for taking the next steps in programming their respective languages
(i.e., here is the best list of instructions for setting up your development
environment/installing Ruby on your machine, a good tutorial you know of about
Rails/Sinatra, a suggestion to find a meetup group in your area, etc.). A
curated list of resources for each of these languages would be extremely
valuable for newcomers.

I've been learning Ruby myself lately, and I don't think it's quite as simple
as "go build stuff in it." Much more helpful for seasoned people to say "take
a class, join a meetup group, and get some help because it's normal to get
stuck and need help." For someone who's never programmed before, just
installing the right software and setting up an environment of any sort is
intimidating and easy to get stuck on.

Sure, you need to start building stuff, but RubyMonk, CodeAcademy, and others
like them are great ways to get people interested enough to take the next
step. We just need some good resources to take those next steps, and Googling
doesn't always lead you to a good, accessible resource (I hear
<http://learnpythonthehardway> works for Python, but don't really know of
similar resources for other languages).

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msluyter
Really nice. Can anyone comment on the architecture/stack used to create this,
esp. with regard to the front end?

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kaiwren
Sure - the front end is basically a Rails based custom CMS that allows us to
write content in 'RubyMonk flavoured' HAML.

This is backed by servers that are running a bunch of eval loops using the
Secure gem. See <https://github.com/c42/secure> if you're interested in the
SandBoxing.

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aridiculous
I like the peculiar starting level of instruction. Most tutorials like this
start with the very basics of programming or skip to demos of hard stuff. This
is like a level 2 tutorial for people who kind of know the very, very basics.

Looking forward to updates. I've completed everything thus far.

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rargulati
Really well made. Loved the attention to detail: after switching from cmd +
enter to clicking "run" a few times, I was given the hint to use cmd + enter
instead. Ticker on the top really added to keeping focused and goal oriented.
Going to get back to finishing this.

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jasim
We have Badges and Achievements planned to keep it even more interesting. But
had to cut down scope to release an MVP and see if the community likes it.
Thanks for the response!

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jc4p
Did I do something wrong? After I finished the introduction to arrays it
brought me to making a calculator class (don't quite see how that's relevant
to arrays) and I had no idea how to write the code because I hadn't even
learned the basic syntax yet.

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marcamillion
This is awesome. I really love this.

Really lowers the barrier to entry for Ruby developers.

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kaiwren
In the 90 minutes since we launched, 698 people have solved at least one
exercise at <http://RubyMonk.com>, with a total of 8404 exercises being
solved. Thank you for trying us out and giving us feedback!

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duck
Very cool and great design, but I think I would recommend
<http://rubykoans.com/> over it if you really want to jump into Ruby.

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jasim
We love RubyKoans too! With RubyMonk we are trying to make things more
interactive, and easier for new users to get into.

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shantharam
Loved it. I found most exercises and problems easy to do and most importantly
it was fun. Looking forward to more lessons, exercise and problems.

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anandhak
Very slick navigation and a lot of fun! Would really love to see the focus on
the Problems sections to keep things interesting.

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pg_bot
The end of program problems don't allow you to view the solution even though
there is a link on the page.

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kaiwren
Thanks for the feedback - I've opened a ticket and we should have this sorted
shortly.

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Blocks8
Great tool! Great for daily practice while learning Rails on another tutorial.

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romilly
Outstanding UI design. This is enticing me to learn Ruby at last. Thanks!

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akonan
I cannot seem to get further from the leasson 2 although my code passes

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akonan
Now it seems to work

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kaiwren
Sorry - I guess we were all asleep (passed out?) when this happened. I'm glad
it's working, but I'll log a ticket anyway.

Also, thanks for the feedback. Let us know if there's anything else we should
be fixing/changing - you can reach us at rubymonk@c42.in

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ew
I'm really tired of seeing Ruby tutourials online. Teaching someone Ruby
doesn't teach them the first thing about getting set up with a functioning
website where they can put that code to practice.

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jwallaceparker
>> Teaching someone Ruby doesn't teach them the first thing about getting set
up with a functioning website where they can put that code to practice.

Well there are plenty of tutorials for that, too.

