On Tuesday 12 October 2004 04:01 pm, Eric Curtis wrote: <snip>> 2. How long would it take an average intelligence guy to get up to > speed with all of the following: Ruby<snip> I''m afraid I can''t help at all with any of your other questions, as I''m pretty much in the same situation as yourself - but for the getting up to speed quickly in Ruby, I just recently stumbled into the "Poignant Guide To Ruby", and although it can be very... uh, abstract - it''s actualy proven to be extremely usefull to me as an intro to Ruby. Check it out: http://poignantguide.net/ruby/index.html ( There''s some links to other good online/free resources to learning Ruby as well, if the Poignant guide''s style doesn''t suit you. ) Beers, Corey -- "Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people''s minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." - Arundhati Roy
Warning - Newbie Questions - I did not find answers to the following questions in the online FAQ and examples. First off I would like to share my background - I am mainly a multimedia designer although I have a few years of experience with Lingo (from Director) but I mostly develop websites. In the past I have designed, cut the pages and created the html/css for many websites. I like lean and mean code that is not full of junk but I was recently hired to work on an online store project that had a packaged ASP back-end (Product Cart from Early Impact) which was not my choice and I am hating working in the code. Pages typically go for about 1500-2500 lines of code with tons of if..then loops that try to account for every conceivable option in their store (most of which we do not use). Now I know I am stuck for this project but I have begun to poke around for an alternative in the future and was heading to PHP and maybe Zen Cart until I ran into RAILS. So here are the questions: 1. Has it been done/is it possible to create complete online store with RAILS? Am I mistaking it''s uses? An real world examples of stores? 2. How long would it take an average intelligence guy to get up to speed with all of the following: Ruby, Rails and SQL (I know a bit about that actually)? I would also be learning OO programming concepts as well I suppose...advice appreciated... 3. I worry that even if it is possible to get the store going that I will be too new or RAILS might not provide the amount of security required for such an endeavor. Is Security easy to figure out? 4. I can not devout full time hours to learning this stuff, so should I just look to hire someone instead and just go back to playing with my Photoshop and Cinema 4D? Sincerely, Eric Curtis
On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 04:01:53PM -0700, Eric Curtis wrote:> Warning - Newbie Questions - I did not find answers to the following > questions in the online FAQ and examples. > > First off I would like to share my background - I am mainly a > multimedia designer although I have a few years of experience with > Lingo (from Director) but I mostly develop websites. In the past I have > designed, cut the pages and created the html/css for many websites.Hi, welcome.> So here are the questions: > 1. Has it been done/is it possible to create complete online store with > RAILS? Am I mistaking it''s uses? An real world examples of stores?It is certainly possible to create an online store and is definitely within the scope of what Rails aims to provide. Real world examples? I don''t know of any yet, Rails was only publically released a couple months ago. I''m sure one will surface soon though. That''s not to say there aren''t some big projects (see Basecamp), I just don''t know of any online stores in particular.> 2. How long would it take an average intelligence guy to get up to > speed with all of the following: Ruby, Rails and SQL (I know a bit > about that actually)? I would also be learning OO programming concepts > as well I suppose...advice appreciated...You can learn enough to begin to produce pretty quickly. Of course, quality comes with time and experience, but there''s nothing magnificently difficult. I''d think you can get enough Ruby knowledge to start writing decent programs in a week or so (more or less, depending on prior programming experience). Check out the latest edition of the Programing Ruby book by Dave Thomas. It''ll get you going.> 3. I worry that even if it is possible to get the store going that I > will be too new or RAILS might not provide the amount of security > required for such an endeavor. Is Security easy to figure out?Security is never easy to figure out. I''m not aware of any current limitations in the Rails framework that would add insecurity, though. With an online store handling people''s money, it''s not something you want to take too lightly.> 4. I can not devout full time hours to learning this stuff, so should I > just look to hire someone instead and just go back to playing with my > Photoshop and Cinema 4D?That''s always an option. I guess it depends on your goals. If programming an online store is something you _want_ to do, then go for it. If it''s something you _have_ to have, right now, but don''t necessarily want to become a programmer, then hire someone to do it. I know there are more than a couple people proficient with Rails who might be interested in taking on a project for pay. It''s totally up to you. If you do decide to break into Rails, though, I think you will certainly enjoy yourself. Good luck, -Scott _______________________________________________ Rails mailing list Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
On Wednesday 13 Oct 2004 4:31 am, Eric Curtis wrote:> 1. Has it been done/is it possible to create complete online store with > RAILS? Am I mistaking it''s uses? An real world examples of stores?It is possible to create a online shopping / store using rails. I don''t know of any real world examples that are using rails. I plan to start writting one later this year due to my frustration of oscommerce. Think of rails as bricks and and cement. You can do any thing you want with it.> 2. How long would it take an average intelligence guy to get up to > speed with all of the following: Ruby, Rails and SQL (I know a bit > about that actually)? I would also be learning OO programming concepts > as well I suppose...advice appreciated...You can get a good enough grip in a week or so. But then again your experience also does count.> 3. I worry that even if it is possible to get the store going that I > will be too new or RAILS might not provide the amount of security > required for such an endeavor. Is Security easy to figure out?Just get started on it. Release the application under the Gnu/GPL. There will always be some one who will able to assist you in the areas you don''t have experience in.> 4. I can not devout full time hours to learning this stuff, so should I > just look to hire someone instead and just go back to playing with my > Photoshop and Cinema 4D?This is not really a rails question. It is more of a business question. -- Regards, Warren Brian Noronha GNU (http://www.gnu.org.in)
On Tuesday 12 Oct 2004 4:46 pm, Corey wrote:> ( There''s some links to other good online/free resources to learning > Ruby as well, if the Poignant guide''s style doesn''t suit you. )Just get a copy of the Pickaxe Book 2nd Edition, that is all that you will ever need.> - Arundhati RoyThis lady rocks! -- Regards, Warren Brian Noronha GNU (http://www.gnu.org.in)
> So here are the questions: > 1. Has it been done/is it possible to create complete online store > with RAILS? Am I mistaking it''s uses? An real world examples of > stores?i''m working on one right now. unless you are doing a 2nd amazon, i dont see a reason why it wouldnt work with rails.> 2. How long would it take an average intelligence guy to get up to > speed with all of the following: Ruby, Rails and SQL (I know a bit > about that actually)? I would also be learning OO programming concepts > as well I suppose...advice appreciated...personally i rather wouldn''t do it then. dont get me wrong, but if you dont really know a lot about oo and sql, i would rather hire somebody to do it for you or at least help you with it. i think its never a good idea to do critical projects in a 100% new environment. it would be different if you would be just new to ruby and rails, then i would say it would be doable. but if basics like sql and oo are missing, hmm.> 3. I worry that even if it is possible to get the store going that I > will be too new or RAILS might not provide the amount of security > required for such an endeavor. Is Security easy to figure out?i would say it''s the pretty similiar to other platforms. again, if you are completely new to programming, it can be risky..> 4. I can not devout full time hours to learning this stuff, so should > I just look to hire someone instead and just go back to playing with > my Photoshop and Cinema 4D?my opinion: yes! at least somebody who helps you with it. i just saw too many projects where people were not aware of their limitations, jumped blindly into a project full of requirements they don''t really know a lot about.. they all end in a mess =)
> 1. Has it been done/is it possible to create complete online store > with RAILS? Am I mistaking it''s uses? An real world examples of > stores?It most certainly is. There are at least a couple of developers working on stores including Florian Weber (responsible for the new OO-style associations among other things). Making a real store is somewhat of a significant effort, though, so I wouldn''t expect people would just release their work as open source.> 2. How long would it take an average intelligence guy to get up to > speed with all of the following: Ruby, Rails and SQL (I know a bit > about that actually)? I would also be learning OO programming concepts > as well I suppose...advice appreciated...There is no answer to this question, really. It very much depend on your background in programming. But if you do have a clue on the basics, I''d gather it shouldn''t take more than a few weeks to have a good grab on what''s going on in examples. But mastering the concepts is still something quite different.> 3. I worry that even if it is possible to get the store going that I > will be too new or RAILS might not provide the amount of security > required for such an endeavor. Is Security easy to figure out?Security is imho never easy to figure out, but Rails at least attempts to help in form of especially the before_filter stuff that can help you protect actions. Rails is fully capable of implementing any security model you''d like. It has less to do with Rails and more to do with knowledge of general principles.> 4. I can not devout full time hours to learning this stuff, so should > I just look to hire someone instead and just go back to playing with > my Photoshop and Cinema 4D?I think it''s wonderful that you''re branching out. But I would recommend hiring some professional help to at least look over your code once you''re done. And more likely also be available during development. When you''re making a shop, you''re dealing with transactions, and possibly credit cards. If something goes wrong, it''s not just a forum posting that is missed, but potential dollars. That shouldn''t intimidate you, but just serve as a reminder. -- David Heinemeier Hansson, http://www.rubyonrails.org/ -- Web-application framework for Ruby http://www.instiki.org/ -- A No-Step-Three Wiki in Ruby http://macromates.com/ -- TextMate: Code and markup editor for OS X http://www.basecamphq.com/ -- Web-based Project Management http://www.loudthinking.com/ -- Broadcasting Brain http://www.nextangle.com/ -- Development & Consulting Services