[rileytg]

this is an classic for rails. countless entrepreneur/developers i know have used this as their first 0 to production guide for their first real (shipped, launched, live etc) software projects.

I say it's an excellent intro to someone with maybe some academic programming experience to get into web app development. it gives you the kick starter development plan you need to make a Twitter, db, grub hub, air bnb type startup alone or with a small team.

and... he keeps it up to date! with impeccable detail!

[ryanSrich]

It's also amazing for non-programmer tech people like designers and marketers who want to start building their own side projects.

[crisopolis]

Hopefully they know Ruby first.

[hiou]

I don't know. I just did a Rails backend. Feel like I couldn't have written more than 100 lines of ruby in the whole thing. Not sure its that important.

[ryanSrich]

I don't understand. Why would they need to know Ruby fist? These arent people looking to become devs. They're looking to limp something along until it takes off or dies. There's no need know Ruby for that.

In fact I'd go so far as to say that trying to learn Ruby first is doing yourself a disservice. Just dive right in.

[joshmn]

This.

I see so many people just skip Ruby fundamentals and go straight into Rails, or worse... they think that Rails is... Ruby.