Question

Just finished Michael’s Hartl online tutorial. So my current state is: a little bit of Ruby knowledge and some Rails, based on this tutorial.
Where do I go from here?

1. I understand that Javascript is a must, but in Rails 3.1 it has been replaced with CoffeeScript. So which one should I choose to learn?
2. What would be the nex step in learning RoR?

Answer 1

There are several places you could go from here; these are just my opinions.

1. Think of something you want to try to build, and try to build it. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to learn the framework–wrestle with it yourself, and figure out along the way what you’re doing right and wrong, and what you understand and what you only think you understand. 😉
2. Check out RailsCasts and watch old episodes that sound interesting to you. Some of the older ones can be slightly out of date due to being for Rails 2, but Ryan has started re-releasing these in RailsCasts Pro. There are also some really great “Intro to Rails Version (something)” and “Understand the New (whatever)” videos–CoffeeScript is one such topic covered.
3. Check out some books that dig deeper into Rails if that’s the way you learn. The Rails 3 Way is one such book you may consider.
4. Consider reading the Rails source code to find out how something works. It can be complicated at times, but the rewards are worth it. Also check out the Routing Walkthrough RailsCasts to see how you might approach this.

[Edit] Regarding CoffeeScript: It’s a nice language built on top of JavaScript, and is also completely optional in Rails 3. Personally, I’m a big fan of CS, and was before Rails decided to adopt it as a default, but if you don’t like it just remote the CoffeeScript line from your Gemfile and name your stuff whatever.js instead of whatever.js.coffee.

Good luck, and have fun!