Re: New to Rails / Dont know PHP. Advice?

[Frederick Cheung]

On Monday, April 22, 2013 9:55:46 PM UTC+1, Flannel Beard wrote:

Hello all, FlannelBeard here. 

I've got a project coming up for work that I think can use rails. I want to impress my boss. It does require a database and it will need to process credit card information. 

I am a front-end web developer. I can tweak BASIC php, nothing major. I know how to edit Jquery and a little Javascript. I do know Html5 and Css, though. Php and other back-end languages prove...difficult for me.

My question, is that for a guy with my skill set, is it recommended to learn Ruby on Rails where I am at, or do I NEED, again, NEED to know Php in order to better grasp Rails?

I wouldn't say you need to know php to understand rails. It might even teach you bad habits, depending on what sort of php you do. Of course in general learning your first language/web framework will be more difficult than the second, so if you really got your head round rails then you might find php easier than if you dived straight into php, but then it's probably true the other way around too.

Fred

 

If I dont need to know intermediate to advanced Php, and i can learn rails right now, ill do it. Obviously I know it is advised to learn both. I get that, but I have not had to use php much in my front end developments. Would rails suffice, if I do not wish to learn php right this very moment? is is easier to learn rails first and THEN go to php?

Im just a career driven web developer who wants to learn back-end languages. As of now, theyre like alien languages to me, as for most front-end developers. I want to break that barrier and become both. Any tips for a beginner in back-end work? Sorry if my question seems...pointless. But I need some guidance. I need some experts to let me know what is what and to guide me to grow and learn.

Thanks, everyone. Sorry if I seem scattered. I tend to type out my thoughts as they come to me. Over-explaining has been a bane of mine for ages.

-FlannelBeard

[Jordon Bedwell]

On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 3:51 AM, Frederick Cheung <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Monday, April 22, 2013 9:55:46 PM UTC+1, Flannel Beard wrote:

Hello all, FlannelBeard here. 

I've got a project coming up for work that I think can use rails. I want to impress my boss. It does require a database and it will need to process credit card information. 

I am a front-end web developer. I can tweak BASIC php, nothing major. I know how to edit Jquery and a little Javascript. I do know Html5 and Css, though. Php and other back-end languages prove...difficult for me.

My question, is that for a guy with my skill set, is it recommended to learn Ruby on Rails where I am at, or do I NEED, again, NEED to know Php in order to better grasp Rails?

I wouldn't say you need to know php to understand rails. It might even teach you bad habits, depending on what sort of php you do.

That goes on the assumption that Rails or Ruby itself doesn't teach you some bad habits if you learn Ruby by way of Rails.  Or that Ruby can't teach you bad habits when it can.  Abuse of Modules and Classes (directly related by over using modules instead of classes or the other way around and such,) abuse of meta-programming, abuse of certain types of loops that are considered slow.  You can abuse any language but it's much easier to abuse Ruby and think you're doing it right because it works good right now... more than some other languages if you ask me.

I've always said and will always repeat: It's easy to learn any programming language, the hard part is learning to do it right.  This goes doubly for Ruby if you ask me because the resources available are huge, the hard part is sorting which are actually good resources and won't end up leading you down a path that will end up hurting you one day.

[Colin Law]

On 22 April 2013 21:55, Flannel Beard <flannelb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all, FlannelBeard here.
>
> I've got a project coming up for work that I think can use rails. I want to
> impress my boss. It does require a database and it will need to process
> credit card information.
>
> I am a front-end web developer. I can tweak BASIC php, nothing major. I know
> how to edit Jquery and a little Javascript. I do know Html5 and Css, though.
> Php and other back-end languages prove...difficult for me.
>
> My question, is that for a guy with my skill set, is it recommended to learn
> Ruby on Rails where I am at, or do I NEED, again, NEED to know Php in order
> to better grasp Rails?

I wonder if you are confused about Rails and think that is related to
php in some way. Rails is nothing to do with php but is based on
Ruby. In depth knowledge of Ruby is not required to get started
however. Work through a good tutorial such as railstutorial.org and
you will learn the fundamentals of Ruby at the same time as Rails.
Your knowledge of jQuery, javascript, html and css will be invaluable
however.

Colin