Idea for a Rails tutorial book

[Michael Hartl]

I'm working on an idea for a Rails tutorial book, and I'm hoping to
get some feedback from this list. Like many Rails developers, I have a
hard time giving a good answer when a beginner asks me, "Where do I go
to learn Rails?" There are plenty of Rails books aimed at newbies,
but, as an author of just such a book (RailsSpace), I can testify that
they quickly go out of date (usually about three months before they
come out :-). The Rails Guides are excellent, but many beginners need
a longer, more structured tutorial to really "get" Rails. And we all
know how awesome PeepCode and Railscasts are, but these tend to be
aimed at intermediate-to-advanced programmers, and they don't offer a
comprehensive, step-by-step approach from the ground up.

To address this situation, I'm considering writing a free online Rails
tutorial book. Here's the basic idea:

* Launch a project to put a book-length Rails tutorial on the web (as
HTML and, eventually, as a PDF)
* Develop an example app with high coding standards, made with the
help of the Rails community
* Write the book in the open, with continuous reader feedback
* Revise as necessary with each new version of Rails, so that the
tutorial is always up-to-date (while keeping the old versions online
for reference)

My plan is to support the project financially by selling an extended
(~10-15 hr.) screencast version of the tutorial, but the HTML and PDF
versions would always be free, and both the full book text and example
app source code would be available on GitHub.

Do you guys think this is a good idea? I've registered
railstutorial.org for this purpose, but there's nothing there yet. If
I do this project, I want to do it right, and I'll be much more likely
to proceed if I know I have the support of other Rails activists.

Cheers,

Michael

--
Michael Hartl
Coauthor, RailsSpace (http://rubyurl.com/naf)
Developer, Insoshi (http://github.com/insoshi/insoshi)

[Mark Coates]

I think it's a great idea. You've identified a weak point in the
market--and a weak point in the Rails brain-trust. Giving away and
regularly updating the info is a great idea, and adding an inexpensive
screencast supplement would rock.

If you need any help, let me know.

Regards,

Mark Coates
Editor | Rails Magazine
http://railsmagazine.com
------------------------------
http://www.oddlyzen.com
http://www.twitter.com/oddlyzen
http://www.linkedin.com/in/oddlyzen


On Apr 8, 2009, at 12:42 PM, Mark Coates wrote:

> I think it's a great idea. You've identified a weak point in the
> market--and a weak point in the Rails brain-trust. Giving away and
> regularly updating the info is a great idea, and adding an
> inexpensive screencast supplement would rock.
>
> If you need any help, let me know.

[Carlo Pecchia]

A low-intermediate tutorial book is, probably, a lack in the "market"
nowadays... so I think is a nice idea.
If you need some help in (co)authoring/reviewing/what-else simply let me know!


2009/4/8 Michael Hartl <mha...@gmail.com>:

--
Carlo Pecchia
email: c.pe...@gmail.com
twitter: @carlopecchia

[Matthew Ford]

Hi,

I'd be happy to help out i've been wanting to convert the book I
started writing 'Beginning Merb' to Rails 3, even since Apress
canceled it (more on that int her merb-book group
http://groups.google.com/group/merb-book/browse_thread/thread/184a28805ea0af3f).

let me know in what way I could help, do you have a TOC sorted?

Matt

[Matt Aimonetti]

Hey Matt,

 We didn't start working on the book since Rails3 is only in "really early alpha" stage.
I'll keep you posted, but thanks for offering to help.

- Matt

[Michael Hartl]

Based on lots of positive feedback (especially from people on this
list), I have decided to go ahead with the Rails Tutorial project, as
those who talked with me at RailsConf know by now. I'm also planning
to get involved in working on the Rails Guides, which I hope can
become the Rails analogue of the Django Book.

The reaction to RailsSpace gives me confidence that a book-length
tutorial---i.e., something much more substantial than a 5-10 page
"quickstart" tutorial---is not only essential for newbies, it is
useful to experienced developers as well. Based on a draft copy of the
Merb tutorial book that Matt Ford sent me, I think our approaches are
very similar, and I'm excited to get Matt's feedback as the Rails
Tutorial project progresses. In particular, we both see a role for an
integrated tutorial that builds a large-ish sample application, which
can complement a more modular documentation book in the spirit of the
Django Book.

I don't have a Table of Contents yet, but you can check out the TOC of
RailsSpace (available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321480791) to get a
hint of what's coming. You can also look at the book page at
railstutorial.org for a general idea of the book's topics:

http://railstutorial.org/book

I've also set up a minimalist announcements blog
(http://railstutorial.org/blog) and Twitter account
(http://twitter.com/railstutorial) for the project.

I look forward to hearing from Matt Ford, Matt Aimonetti, and even the
occasional non-Matt member of the Rails activism community as the
Rails Tutorial project moves forward.

Cheers,

Michael

--
Michael Hartl

http://railstutorial.org/

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 5:08 AM, Matthew Ford <mcf...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[Matt Aimonetti]

Wow, that's awesome guys!  Having 2 talented writers working on the guides and maybe the book, is totally awesome.
Just to clarify something, the guides are where we document rails stack related 'tutorials' in other words, explaining how to do things.
The Rails book that we talked earlier was to focus more on the 'why' of things, explaining why things work the way they do.

- Matt