The first thing to realize is that you can starting writing apps that create value pretty quickly after you have some basic skills, but if you really want to take it all the way it will take you years of ongoing practice and study. It's an iterative process of learning, doing, and reflecting. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
I'd recommend "Learn to Program", too (it was the first book I thought of before reading his response). I think attending user groups fairly early on would be helpful for motivation because it will show you what will soon be well within your grasp. Finally, put any lingering doubts you may have about designers/creative/non-developers not being able to learn to develop quality software out of your head. That's obsolete nonsense. There are lots of people in the Ruby community who do both design and programming well. On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 4:10 PM, David Nguyen <[email protected]> wrote: > I love design (digital and print) and I've taught myself website > design (HTML, CSS...) focused on utilizing Wordpress and the Thematic > framework (I haven't come up with a design/function these two can't > accomplish). > > But real-deal programming scares me...so I wanna learn! There's so > many web apps I want to build, but have no idea where to start. > > I think the best way for me to learn is to submerse myself in the > cohort. Am I able to join your meetings and observe or will it be so > far over my head it would be ridiculous and laughable? > > I know simple PHP and can figure out most of it with some time, but I > feel Ruby is the direction of web development and cloud computing I > should focus towards. > > > > Thanks for your time and advice, > > David N. > > -- > SD Ruby mailing list > [email protected] > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby -- SD Ruby mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby
