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POHow can this C and PHP programmer learn Ruby and Rails?
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copied!<p>I came from a C, php and bash background, it was easy to learn because they all have the same C structure, which I can associate with what I already know.</p> <p>Then 2 years ago I learned Python and I learned it quite well, Python is easier for me to learn than Ruby. Then since last year, I was trying to learn Ruby, then Rails, and I admit, until now I still couldn't get it, the irony is that those are branded as easy to learn, but for a seasoned programmer like me, I just couldn't associate it with what I learned before, I have 2 books on both Ruby and Rails, and when I'm reading it nothing is absorbed into my mind, and I'm close to giving up...</p> <p>In ruby, I'm having a hard time grasping the concepts of blocks, and why there's @variables that can be accessed by other functions, and what does $variable and :variable do? And in Rails, why there's function like this_is_another_function_that_do_this, so thus ruby, is it just a naming convention or it's auto-generated with thisvariable _can_do_this_function. I'm still puzzled that where all those magic concepts and things came from? And now, 1 year of trying and absorbing, but still no progress...</p> <p><strong>Edit:</strong> To summarize:</p> <ol> <li>How can I learn about blocks, and how can it be related to concepts from PHP/C?</li> <li>Variables, what does does it mean when a variable is prefixed with: <ul> <li>@</li> <li>$</li> <li>:</li> </ul></li> <li>"Magic concepts", suchs as rails declarations of Records, what happens behind the scenes when I write <code>has_one X</code></li> </ol> <p>OK so, bear with me with my confusion, at least I'm honest with myself, and it's over a year now since I first trying to learn ruby, and I'm not getting younger..</p> <p>so </p> <pre><code>I learned this in Bash/C/PHP solve_problem($problem) { if [ -e $problem == "trivial" ]; then write_solution(); else breakdown_problem_into_N_subproblems(\; define_relationship_between_subproblems; for i in $( command $each_subproblem ); do solve_problem $i done fi } write_solution(problem) { some_solution=$(command <parameters> "input" | command); command | command $some_solution > output_solved_problem_to_file } breakdown_problem_into_N_subproblems($problems) { for i in $problems; do command $i | command > i_can_output_a_file_right_away done } define_relationship_between_subproblems($problems) { if [ -e $problem == "relationship" ]; then relationship=$(command; command | command; command;) elsif [ -e $problem == "another_relationship" ]; relationship=$(command; command | command; command;) fi } In C/PHP is something like this solve_problem(problem) { if (problem == trivial) write_solution; else { breakdown_problem_into_N_subproblems; define_relationship_between_subproblems; for (each_subproblem) solve_problems(subproblem); } } </code></pre> <p>And now, I just couldn't connect the dots with Ruby, |b|{ blocks }, using @variables, :variables, and variables_with_this_things..</p>

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