Just a general bit of advice: You will learn more iterating through "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat" than any amount of plain reading. When I learned Python, I sat down with Dive Into Python and the command line.
I think Dive into Python is a great book - but I wouldn't recommend it to biz2hack. At least - not yet. (How to Think like a computer scientist) is a better Python intro book - but if you've got a site in Ruby/Rails - start with that.
Completely Agree though on this: "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat"
Here's a first step for you - you've got a website somewhere - getting it running on your local machine. It might be worth installing something like VMWare Player and setting up a linux "virtual machine" - you can download pre-configured ones. (To translate - that basically means your windows computer can pretend to be a linux server - and that pretend server can run all of your programs - without changing anything on your own system)
Regardless of how you do it - let me repeat. Set it up locally and play with it. Change. Save. Test. Repeat.
I wasn't suggesting Dive into Python to him, he's trying to learn Ruby. I was just drawing upon an example. The VMWare approach, setting up a virtual linux box so that he can configure apache and ruby, might be a little much for a biz2hack, as you put it.
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Just a general bit of advice: You will learn more iterating through "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat" than any amount of plain reading. When I learned Python, I sat down with Dive Into Python and the command line.
I think Dive into Python is a great book - but I wouldn't recommend it to biz2hack. At least - not yet. (How to Think like a computer scientist) is a better Python intro book - but if you've got a site in Ruby/Rails - start with that.
Completely Agree though on this: "change the code, save the file, execute the code, repeat"
Here's a first step for you - you've got a website somewhere - getting it running on your local machine. It might be worth installing something like VMWare Player and setting up a linux "virtual machine" - you can download pre-configured ones. (To translate - that basically means your windows computer can pretend to be a linux server - and that pretend server can run all of your programs - without changing anything on your own system)
Regardless of how you do it - let me repeat. Set it up locally and play with it. Change. Save. Test. Repeat.
I wasn't suggesting Dive into Python to him, he's trying to learn Ruby. I was just drawing upon an example. The VMWare approach, setting up a virtual linux box so that he can configure apache and ruby, might be a little much for a biz2hack, as you put it.
Would you happen to know a similar book available for Ruby, if you have any ideas?
These two are both good intros to Ruby: http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/ http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/