Codeschool RubyBits vs Codecademy, The Sequel

Part II of the Codeschool vs. Codecademy Comparison!

I finally got around to checking out RubyBits, CodeSchool's interactive coding lessons for Ruby. And let me tell you, I actually love it. It consists of a video lesson (with a teacher talking) highlighting different concepts, followed by different "challenges" (practice problems) all presented in a cute, 1980s video game/RPG format.

What I Liked

The COLORS! Let's face it. With the exception of a few die-hard code junkies, for most of us, learning code can be dry and difficult. But the bright colors and 80s RPG graphics make me smile, even as I'm trying to figure out the answer to the question.

The EASY-TO-NAVIGATE INTERFACE! Wow! When I want a hint, I can click on it. When I want the answer, I can click on it. When I want to review the slides from the lesson, I can do that too, with one simple click. Genius!

VIDEO WITH A PERSON! Yes, yes, I know it's a pre-recorded lesson. But somehow, having a human go over these dry concepts with me somehow makes coding more...human!

Now don't get me wrong. Codecademy is still my first love. It was where I first learned to love the instant gratification of online coding lessons. But RubyBits took it one step higher, and now I'm hooked. It also helps that I paid for the subsciption. So will I be practicing? You bet!

**Note** In the CodeSchool forum, some folks mentioned that the jump in level from "TryRuby" (the introductory Ruby lesson) to Level 1 of RubyBits was too abrupt. I personally did not find this to be so, as I have already been studying Ruby from various sources. I find that with each different source I study from, I learn something new, even if it's something I already thought I knew. However, I can see how someone might think the jump in level is too abrupt as RubyBits is especially jargon-heavy. I appreciated the jargon-heaviness of this as I'm a beginner and need practice using correct terms/jargon. The final verdict, of course, is up to you, my friends.

Happy Coding! :-)

Codecademy vs Codeschool

**SCARY LEGALESE** I am not sponsored by either Codecademy or CodeSchool. I wish I were! LOL. Anything written here is my free and honest opinion. No goods, money, or services were exchanged for this blog entry. No small animals were harmed in the making of this blog entry.

Whew! Oh yeah, and Happy New Year Everyone!

Okay! So let's start this thing for real!

It's been about a month and a half since I decided to change my life and learn to code. It's been an up-and-down experience of course, as anyone trying something completely new can tell you. I've tried various books (which I plan to review here) and web sites, most of which I have stumbled upon by accident. Two websites which have figured prominently in my Journey to Ruby Developer are CodeSchool and Codecademy.

If you want to read other folks' take on this topic, I will now direct you to to Quora (a lovely web site which I can spend hours wasting time, I mean, doing research on.) I will be writing from my own SUPER newbie perspective. I love both these web sites for different reasons.

First off, I LOVE Codecademy for its price: FREE. For someone (like me) who is low on funds and not entirely certain (at first) I wanted to do this coding thing, I wanted to try something risk free. And because I had only studied coding previously with books, it was nice to have INTERACTIVE tutorials. I type something in wrong, BAM, Codecademy will tell me instantly. Stuck on something? Post your question on the forum, and a fellow user will answer you usually within 24 hours.

There were also things I didn't love. Anyone who codes for a bit knows that there is usually more than one solution to a coding problem. But for Codecademy, if you use correct Ruby code but don't use the exact code they want, your code will not be accepted as correct. I understand they do this so that you practice the exact code they want you to learn, but still, it sometimes gets to be a pain in the butt. Another thing I didn't like, was that they have you practice all these skills, but rarely tell you what the practical applications of this code is. Hash? Array? Huh? Finally, although I liked the interactive style learning, I missed learning from a book. When I was studying from a book, I had to painstakingly type in things line-by-line vs copy/paste, which forced me to get to know the code more intimately. And from a book, there's less pressure to pick up new concepts instantly. I could type some code, put down the book, mull over the new code, and do something else.

Enter CodeSchool. I honestly haven't been using it that long (I LITERALLY signed up for a subscription yesterday) but I have completed the first free "Try Ruby" module and I already love it. What do I love? First off, although it's a paid subscription, the price isn't too bad at $29 per month. Secondly, I like that, while completing the TryRuby section, they explained exactly what the code could be used for (there's a short section on building your own blog from an array of classes! WHOA! Talk about practical!) I can't speak yet to the rest of the course offerings, Ruby or otherwise, but I will certainly post updates regarding my experience using CodeSchool.

In closing, there's a lot to love about both web sites. I personally found Codecademy's Beginning Ruby section more challenging than CodeSchool's, but that's probably also because I had less experience with Ruby then, so that's why it was more confusing and difficult to me. Either way, I don't think a beginner to Ruby could lose by trying both, as the price is nice (FREE) and even if you think you have a good foundation, you can always stand to learn something from practicing the basics. Take care, everyone! And if there's winter where you are, keep warm!

Getting Jiggy With My Command Prompt Part II, and I Love My Text Editor

I know you're sick of seeing my Command Prompt by now!

I'm finally on Chapter 7 of Chris Pine's Learn to Program. It's beginning to get heavy, with lots of new commands and ideas to keep track of. Amidst all the coding, however, I notice something really neat. My text editor, Komodo Edit, automatically formats. This is handy for when you're trying to keep your code readable. I know a ton of other text editors probably do this also (this shows you how much of a newbie I am, LOL) but I still think it's awesome.

Happy Monday, everyone!!!!

Feminist Hacker Barbie

Forget Kim Kardashian, Computer Engineer Barbie broke the Internet for a few minutes. I won't rehash all the outrage here, for it will have been old news by now.

Rather, I want to give a shout-out and kudos to Kathleen, the maker of Feminist Hacker Barbie, an app where you can rewrite your own version (a better version) of the Computer Engineer Barbie story. You can even check out other user-submitted versions on the site. Just more proof that coding CAN have social impact. And just more proof that now's a good a time as any for women to be entering the computer engineering field.

Eat that, Barbie!!!

I Want To Make Love To This Programming Book

As I mentioned in my first post, I am a complete and utter newbie when it comes to Ruby. Armed with only a couple of free "Basic Ruby" books I downloaded from Amazon, it took me about a century to figure out how to run a program from my command prompt.

But all that's ancient history (yesterday). Since then, I've put aside the Kindle books and picked up Learn to Program by Chris Pine (it finally came in the mail. Uh oh. This post is turning into an unintentional commercial for Amazon. But that's really not what I want). What I really want, is for this post to turn into a commercial for Learn to Program by Chris Pine. This book is unbelievable.

I've only just completed Chapter 2, but I already love it. Using clear, concise language with a bit of humor thrown in, Chris Pine makes me LOVE to learn Ruby. (I'm not kidding! I really love it!) The explanations are short, but thorough. The program examples he gives are long enough to make the concepts stick in your head, but not too long that you become overwhelmed. I wish I had this book at the start of my journey. But maybe if I did, I wouldn't appreciate this book as much. The picture at the top of the page is of my second successful program, calc.rb (a bunch of exercises at the end of Chapter 2). I was even proud of myself after getting an error message, because I knew how to diagnose it!

So if you're completely new to programming and want to learn Ruby in a painless manner, I highly recommend this book!

'Til next update!

Getting Jiggy with my Command Prompt, and Ruby

My first successful Ruby program

I've been a computer user for most of my life. My parents bought the first family computer in 1988, an Apple IIe, when I was five years old. I've played lo-fi computer games with joysticks and cheesy music, saw the dawn of monetized music downloads, and shared pictures of my daily life on Facebook. My employment history is on LinkedIn. In other words, as computer usage has grown, changed, and evolved, I have too. But there was one thing I hadn't done, and that was write a computer program.

No, that isn't entirely true. My Catholic elementary school had a room full of Apple IIes (and C's!) where, once a week, our math teacher would teach us to program using BASIC. I have a fuzzy recall of shading in boxes of graph paper and using code to make pictures of trucks, square-ish flowers, etc. Flash forward about a thousand years later, and I'm trying to teach myself Ruby. It takes me about another thousand years to figure out how to run the "Hello World!" program from my command prompt, but I finally get it. And there is magic. I'm showing everyone this picture of my first successful Ruby program like it's my first-born. And it is.

I'm about 80% done with the free book I got from Amazon kindle that promises to teach me basic Ruby. That doesn't mean I understand 80% of it (LOL) but I'm learning to enjoy the process.

It sure beats pictures of square flowers!