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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
The girlfriend was working her way through rubykoans.com and ran into several problems with the site throwing proxy errors. Maybe it's fixed by now, but something gave me the impression it hasn't been maintained very well.
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.
