Edd Dumbill and I just released Learning Rails (O'Reilly) last week. It's definitely aimed at beginners, even at web developers with less programming background than most of the Rails books assume. We're also posting screencasts to help people through getting started with it, though I'm still recording most of those.
For more on that, see: http://excursionsonrails.com/ or: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596518776/ There are definitely lots of other good Rails books out there. Here's an excerpt from our preface on "Other Options" (though note that Head First Rails isn't out quite yet): -------------------------------------------------- There are lots of different ways to learn Rails. Some people want to learn Ruby in detail before jumping into a framework that uses it. That’s a perfectly good option, and if you want to start that way, you should explore: * Learning Ruby (O’Reilly, 2007) * The Ruby Programming Language (O’Reilly, 2008) * Ruby Pocket Reference (O’Reilly, 2007) * Programming Ruby, Third Edition (Pragmatic Programmers, 2008) You may also want to supplement (or replace) this book with other books on Rails. If you want some other resources, you can explore: * Head First Rails (O’Reilly, 2008), for a much more visual approach with exercises * Up and Running with Rails, Second Edition (O’Reilly, 2008), for a very quick start * Simply Rails 2 (SitePoint, 2008) takes a similar approach to Learning Rails, but with different opinions and details * http://www.learningrails.com, a site with free podcasts and screencasts for getting started in Rails * The Rails Way (Addison-Wesley, 2007), a big-book reference approach for developers who already know their way * Rails Pocket Reference (O’Reilly, 2008), a small-book reference * Agile Web Development with Rails, Third Edition (Pragmatic Programmers, 2008), for a detailed explanation of a wide range of features. * Enterprise Rails (O’Reilly, 2008), for building large-scale applications * Advanced Rails (O’Reilly, 2008), for when you want to move to the next level You’ll want to make sure that whatever books or online documentation you use covers Rails 2.0 or later. Rails’ perpetual evolution has unfortunately made it dangerous to use a lot of formerly great but now dated material. (Some of it works, some of it doesn’t.) -------------------------------------------------- Also, thanks to this list - many of the threads here inspired parts of Learning Rails, especially in the warnings and notes about potential trouble spots! Simon St.Laurent http://simonstl.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
