Ruby is a high-level scripting language with a variety of uses, though it is most often used to build web applications in conjunction with the Ruby on Rails framework.
It is an object-oriented language that is dynamically typed, in contrast to languages like Java or C# that are statically typed.
Like Python, Ruby is designed to make programming fun and easy. It has a large standard library so that developers don't have to worry about specific functions and can easily write code for their application.
Ruby can be used for many different things, from native GUI programming to statistical analysis, but is most often used for web development.
Ruby gained popularity due in part to the outstanding Ruby on Rails web framework that enables developers to easily create web applications. In the spirit of Ruby, Rails is designed to make writing web applications fun and easy. It prioritizes convention over configuration, meaning you spend less time setting up your app -- configuring build paths, web server, databases, and so on -- and more time writing code for your web application.
Tackle these tasks, and then you'll be ready to build an amazing Ruby on Rails project!
- Learn Ruby language basics
- Basic syntax
- Flow control (loops and conditionals)
- Data structures: Arrays, Hashes
- Classes and objects
includeandrequirefunctions- Gems: installation and usage
- Blocks
- Learn the basics of the Rails platform
- The Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern
- REST/CRUD
The time to learn these tasks can be highly variable, depending on which resources you use, how many hours per week you are able to devote to learning, and what type of support you have (online via message boards, in-person at meetups, etc). Focus on learning all of these topics, rather than hitting the specified number of hours.