Getting started... Tools to begin with

The first tutorial is always the most difficult. As you're getting involved in the community, one of the most frustrating places to be is when you are so basic that you don't know anything and that you don't even really know how everything connects. But, that being said, these are the basics, and some of the more mind-numbing stuff at the beginning builds the foundations moving forward.

My recommendation is to learn the ruby basics before adding in rails. I didn't do it this way… I did ruby on rails tutorials and then went back and did some more ruby stuff. Doing it this way, I think, helps solidify the basics.

Start with tryruby.org. Try ruby probably won't take you very long but try to take your time on it. When I started learning, I was so anxious about knowing stuff, that I rushed through the early stage things like try ruby when I should have been taking notes, really comprehending everything, and doing some additional googling on each term. If you finish try ruby quickly, I'd move on to reading why's (poignant) guide to ruby, and then finally the Jumpstart Labs Ruby in 100 minutes.

If you've never used terminal, the command line, or a text editor (which I hadn't before I started learning), then before moving on to Ruby in 100 minutes, do a little googling on what is the command line and how to use it, what is the terminal, and what is a text editor. One last note, don't let those last things scare you! The first time I opened the terminal and typed something on the command line, I thought I was going to break my computer and erase my whole hard drive accidentally (I still think that sometimes, mostly when I'm doing stuff related to git). All I knew from the command line was that it was for people who actually knew computer stuff. This is not the case. You will not totally destroy anything. So do some research and jump in there without fear.

Happy Learning!