Ruby Update

Remember that post I wrote about my adventures in installing Ruby?  The one I JUST wrote?  Turns out all of my struggles were unneeded.

You see, one of the reference books I was using is called RailSpace, and it attempts to teach already experienced programmers how to use Rails by building a small social networking site from scratch.  I thought it was a great concept, and I enjoyed what I was reading.  The book's use of Ruby 1.8.5 and Rails 1.2 was the driving force behind everything I slogged through.  What's worse, after finishing that last post, I still couldn't get through the book due to version mismatches between Ruby/Rails/Rubygems/whatever else.  I was completely hosed, even in triumph.

Yesterday, I googled the RailsSpace book to look for guidance.  Often times programming books have a dedicated websites with updates, sample code, and sometimes even message boards.  I thought I might find that someone had the same struggles years ago when the book was new.

Guess what the first Google result is when you search on "RailsSpace"?  It's called the "Ruby on Rails Tutorial", which alone doesn't sound like much.  What it REALLY is is an updated version of the RailsSpace book, created by one of its authors, Michael Hartl.  While it isn't entirely the same, it still has you making a social networking site using Rails, and it is written in the same style and pacing as the book.  I've already begun to work through the first two chapters, and I've yet to encounter a single hiccup.

If I had known about this site a week ago, I could have saved so much time and stress.  If I had to pick a silver lining out of the storm clouds, I'd say that I still learned quiet a lot in my failures.  I just don't know if it was worth the overall time spent.

No use crying any more over spilled milk I guess.  Time to do something productive.