I have just started learning rails, tho i have a bit problem. I know python quite decently and some of its frameworks(pylons, pyramid, django, tornado). My question is, do i have to learn ruby itself first, or i can just jump into rails, and learn ruby that way?
Thanks in advance, skipi.
Python and Ruby are pretty close.
You should simply have a look at http://railsforzombies.org to get some Rails knowledge.
I learned Rails before I learned Ruby. It's possible but I do not recommend it at all. I didn't understand what I was doing, wrote bad code, and had no idea how to accomplish even the most basic tasks. It also makes it really hard to troubleshoot errors and bugs.
So, the short answer is: Yes, you can learn Rails and Ruby at the same time, but you will only be hurting yourself.
Rails has a lot of conventions (aka 'magic') that obscures the underlying language, so it is generally not a great way of learning ruby. At least that is my experience.
I am a volunteer mentor at Mendicant University (a free online school for intermediate ruby developers, started by Gregory Brown). Many students come to ruby through rails, and we find that they often have a lot of un-learning to do, to get back to basic design principles and how to apply these in ruby.
I highly recommend taking the MU core course when it is offered again in January (look for an announcement probably next month). Many students apply who are new to ruby but experienced in other languages, so it would be a good fit for you. I also recommend Greg's book Ruby Best Practices, and ongoing Practicing Ruby series.
Eric
Ruby is a key to understanding Rails. So learn Ruby first. This books may be usefull: http://pragprog.com/book/ppmetr/metaprogramming-ruby - this book explain ruby very good, and ihmo is great to start to learn ruby from and mayby http://www.amazon.com/Ruby-Programming-Language-David-Flanagan/dp/0596516177/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318593961&sr=8-1-spell and http://www.amazon.com/Ruby-Way-Second-Techniques-Programming/dp/0672328844/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318593978&sr=1-1
Just hit on below link and see there are two tutorials available for Ruby on Rails 3.0 and 3.2
Ruby on Rails Tutorials link for Rails 3.0 and 3.2
for those tutorials you do not required Ruby backgrounds
