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! :-)

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!