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Pragmatic Studios - Part 3

22/12/2014

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After finishing their Ruby course and being thoroughly impressed by the structure, the explanations and the overall approach to simplifying Ruby, I signed up for their Rails course and the Blocks and Iterators course. Just started Rails, it's a lesson you don't rush, so taking it one lesson a day. The reason it should be taken slowly is, like with their Ruby course, there are parallel projects happening while learning. That is, they teach using one app, and ask you to do another app using similar methods, so you need time to digest the information and apply it to two projects. If you have an idea for another app, you can start off on that as well. 
Meanwhile, I'm on their Blocks and Iterators course, which again deconstructs the topic beautifully with interactive, engaging diagrams/animation drawings. I take a screen shot of these drawings for future reference, like a ready reckoner of sorts.
Again,I keep wondering how did I miss this course? I remember seeing it while searching for online Ruby courses when I was caught by the coding bug, but for some reason didn't sign up. I am on Treehouse, Udemy and Tealeaf for Ruby, Rails and other courses but I strongly recommend Pragmatic Studios as the first step. I've also started re-taking the Ruby course, as a refresher, to relook at the concepts and see how I can apply them to say, a problem on Tealeaf. 
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Pragmatic Studio Ruby - continued.

13/12/2014

1 Comment

 
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I just finished the Pragmatic Studio's Ruby course. They give you a timetable which lays down a one month long plan to take the course but I finished it way ahead. Because it was so simply and beautifully explained I didn't want to stop at just doing one segment a day. 
Mike and Nicole have an excellent way of teaching a complicated language to beginners. First, the diagrams. Important aspects of the language are explained with simple diagrams that visually deconstruct the point, making it easy for you to understand the concept. If you want, you can take screenshot for future reference.
Second, the tete-e-tete between Mike and Nicole. They've mastered the art of two people teaching a lesson at the same time which is a difficult thing to do (there's a Udemy course on a different subject where the teachers of that course try that but doesn't work). Here, Nichole and Mike take turns at asking the relevant questions and raising important points and answer them. 
Three, the whole layout of the course, from strings and numbers to coding three apps. They code a movie app while you are asked to do a game app while there's a bonus coding opportunity for a crowdfunding app using the principles taught in the course. 
The TDD segments are a bit tough, they are more like your afternoon math classes, a pain but necessary. I skimmed over the TDD (Test Driven Development) sections but will have to go back and learn them. In fact, I've already re-started the course as practice is essential in learning anything new.
Towards the end, a couple of points tend to get rushed but that's nothing big. I've signed up for their Rails course and am going to take up their Blocks and Iterators course today. 
I can say in all honesty that if you are a beginner or coding enthusiast looking for your foray in Ruby, this must be your first stop. 

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Loving Pragmatic Studio - Ruby

26/11/2014

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I am not sure if Pragmatic Studio guys have a 'PS I love you' sticker floating around but I would definitely put it up. I just signed up for their Ruby course a couple of a days ago, and as I said in the headline, I'm loving it. So much so that this happens to be the second post about them in two days. While the previous post was also about rubber ducking and tealeaf academy, I thought I would dwell a bit more specifically on PS. 
I tweeted to them this morning saying I'm kicking myself for not signing up earlier. Still, better late and all that. I've finished about half of the course (I'm at the rspec stage).
Forget Treehouse, forget Udemy and other portals. This should be the first stop for your Ruby course (and I'm sure for Rails as well, because they have a Rails course too. There's something very friendly and nice about the way the teachers go about covering all the essential aspects. In a way, it's good that I've taken Ruby and Rails with other sites such as Treehouse where I still have a Silver membership and Udemy with whom I have many courses, as this gives me a better perspective regarding Pragmatic Studio. 
I feel like  I'm actually understanding what I'm learning. The module has two lessons running parallely. The teachers code a movie programme while you code a game based on that. And there's a bonus section which encourages you to code a funding project like Kickstarter. I am doing all three which is fantastic. I know what I'm using methods, why I need classes, what attr_accessor is and why we need them ... things which were hazy at best with other courses (maybe it's just me). 
You know that feeling you get after finishing a course that, somehow, you're not sure what you just spent money on? Well, you don't get that with Pragmatic Studio. Hope the happy coding experience continues. Will keep you guys posted. Meanwhile, if any of you reading this are interested in learning Ruby or Rails, don't make the mistake I made of looking around for too long. Just sign up for PS. You'll thank me later. 

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Tealeaf Academy, Pragmatic Studio and Duck abuse

23/11/2014

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After signing up for Tealeaf Academy's Ruby course, I managed to solve two of the problems, the calculator challenge and the Rock, Paper, Scissors project. They worked too which was encourag_ing and satisfying. Then came the tough parts: Tic Tac Toe and Blackjack. I got the higher language or pseudo logic part quite right (you are encouraged to use English to write down the solution, and introducing code to convert the steps into a working programme) but the problem was in understanding what code to write to translate the pseudo-code into a working one. I am an author and a freelance writer. Logical thinking is as far away from me as saving for a rainy day is to a bachelor on his first salary. This knowledge helped me from smashing my new Mac and throttling the duck.
Did I tell you about the duck? In proamming circles, apparently, they have this method whereby you are supposed to talk to a rubber duck. You tell him your problem, what's keeping you from writing a working code, lying down on a counch while the duck takes notes, yawns, looks at the watch and says, We'll meet next week, meanwhile remember what we talked about today', and charges you $80 a session. 
It's called Rubber Duck Debugging. This, they say, helps. While I see the logic behind talking out your problem loud, I fail to see how a duck can prevent himself from serious threats to his life from frustrated programmers, most of whom are rookies like me. There were times I wanted to beat the crap out of the duck, like Happy Gilmore. That'll only end up in a trail of dead ducks, so to speak. So I took the Codecademy course and finished it in a day and half. Must say it was quite informative for a free course.Finished a couple of Ruby modules on Treehouse. Still, no clue about how to code the blackjack game. So I looked at the solution and did the TicTacToe and am currently doing the Blackjack game. The instructors say you must make some serious attempts to try and code before going to the solutions videos which makes me a trier at least.
The thing is, some of the steps don't even occur to me. I'm sure this is the case if you come from a non-coding background. I've only got the coding bug a few months ago. While trawling the Net, I stumbled onto the Pragmatic Studio again, and this time decided to give it a shot. They were having a discount on their 9th anniversary, and it was affordable, so signed up for their Ruby course, and finished 15% as of now. I like what I see there, like the teachers, and the way they've laid out the programme. It feels good. Progress report to continue, till next time, happy coding, and spare the duck.  


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    This is a chronicle of my journey into coding. I'll post where I am at on the road to learning Ruby with One month Rails and HTML/CSS with Teamtreehouse, and Python which I'm learning on my own. Ambitious for a writer? You bet!

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My other sites:  Music is about memories: http://radiomemories.blogspot.com, http://radiomemories.weebly.com/
A site dedicated to the genius of Kannadasan:http://kannadasansongs.blogspot.com 
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