New to Ruby and Rails

I have never been introduced to Ruby or Rails and have never had any reason to check them out. Of course, I have seen them mentioned a lot as I scan through recent questions on Stack Overflow as well as other places throughout the web. I figured Ruby was just another one of those scripting languages on the shelf amongst all the others. However, I am beginning to think it is worth a closer look. It is supposed to be especially powerful for web app development when you use Ruby On Rails (RoR).

          

So what caught my attention all of a sudden: There are two things that I noticed recently.

1. I realized that 37 Signals uses RoR to develop all their amazing tools. If you don’t know what tools I am talking about, then check them out at 37signals.com. A lot of fun and powerful web applications can be created with RoR.
2. While browsing job postings for many startups, I noticed a lot were looking for RoR experience. I doubt you will see the same trend at larger companies, but for those wanting to work at a small company, knowing Ruby and Rails seems to be an important skill set.

So where to get started: I have found a few good starting points in my initial investigations.

1. Try Ruby – This is the first place that I stopped because I had no experience with Ruby. It is a quick, interactive tutorial that shows you many of a features of Ruby. I definitely recommend it and it only takes 15 minutes.
2. Ruby in Twenty Minutes – Like it says, it only takes about 2o minutes. This is another beginner’s introduction but touches on some areas that the ‘Try Ruby’ tutorial doesn’t get to.
3. Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby – This is an exceptional (and hilarious) guide for those getting started with Ruby. This is a link to the wikipedia page which should include links to the PDF (or just do a Google search). Expect to laugh a lot and often be baffled by absurdity.

More resources to be added as I chance upon them.