

Ask HN: What Are The Best Open Source Codebases to Study to Improve? - confucius_cat

I'm familiar with Rails and have built a few simple applications. I'm proficient to the point where basic tutorials no longer add value to my learning, but I have no formal CS background and would like to explore what good rails structure/code looks like.<p>Though I'm looking for Rails specific suggestions, I made the question nonspecific as i'm sure a cross-platform list would be beneficial for many of us.
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LarryMade2
Im not a Rails guy... but

If you want good source code, find the most popular Rails project that
interests you. Popular projects usually have a high level of refinement and it
being something that interests you will make it a bit more interesting.

As real4real points out, actual coding is important too, make sure to dabble
with things you learned and/or if you think of a novel way to handle something
try it out on your own and see how it all works.

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real4real
i also came out of a non-CS background. I don't recommend just looking at open
source code. That would be like watching someone skiing to try to become a
better skier. The only way to get better at coding is by writing code. You
want to get into a situation with a more experienced programmer who can mentor
you when you get stuck and review your code.

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confucius_cat
I definitely agree about diving into development as the best source of
mastering programming, and it's obviously my main method of learning; my
question was not intended to come off as an avoidance of hands-on learning,
but rather a way to find additional means to accelerate my learning. I have
found extensive tutorials online, but they are both redundant and typically
aimed at the fundamentals of rails. I constantly run into the advice of "read
through code/documentation" but rarely am pointed in the direction of useful
repositories to do this. After sifting through github for a bit, I found no
easy way to figure out good codebases to read through.

I think reading through code is a really valuable supplement to the learning
process, especially when dealing with a framework like rails which is so
heavily convention based. I find reading through code to be the quickest way
of exposing myself to the standard idioms of rails based development.

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colm_h
This is a great question. I'm in basically the same position as you - no
formal cs background but learning RoR and looking for resources to help me
take it to the next level in terms of my coding and development skills.

Have you heard of jumpstartlabs? They have an awesome series of tutorials on
their site covering stuff like common design patterns to use and how to use
workers for background jobs etc.

Also, the project is open source so you can contribute to help improve the
tutorials: <http://tutorials.jumpstartlab.com>

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sumeetchawla
If you wanted something in PHP, I would have suggested Wordpress. Its the
largest and the most popular CMS out there today. I learned a lot by their
methodologies and the way they do things or the they the theme architecture is
built etc.

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zzzzz_
Anything but this! WordPress is an example how NOT to do things!

