Rails Has Great Documentation
by Gregg Pollack
at 2010-08-30 21:20:00
original http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RidingRails/~3/vGfh8XdyIpg/rails-has-great-documentation
To this day I still hear people complain that Rails has poor documentation. From where I’m sitting this seems far from the truth. Let me lay out the evidence piece by piece:
<p><a href="http://railstutorial.org/book"><img src="http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/assets/2010/8/28/railstutorial.gif"></a>
RailsTutorial.org
<p>To learn Rails from scratch Michael Hartl recently finished his book <a href="http://railstutorial.org/">Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example</a>. The book teaches Rails 3 from the ground up and it’s <a href="http://railstutorial.org/book">available for <strong><span>FREE</span></strong> online</a>. If you’d rather have a <a href="http://railstutorial.org/#buy"><span>PDF</span></a> or a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ruby-Rails-Tutorial-Addison-Wesley-Professional/dp/0321743121">book</a> you can grab that as well (and he’s even working on some <a href="http://railstutorial.org/screencasts">screencasts</a>).</p>
<p>The source for the finalized book will be pushed to GitHub and released under a Creative Commons License shortly after Rails 3 is done. If you’d like to help translate the book to your language of choice, feel free to <a href="http://www.michaelhartl.com/" title="Michael Hartl">contact Michael</a> and he’ll get in touch when it’s time to make it happen.</p>
<p><strong>Rails Guides</strong></p>
<p>If you’re not a Rails newbie don’t forget about the <a href="http://edgeguides.rubyonrails.org/">Rails Guides</a>, which have been updated for Rails 3.</p>
<p><strong>Rails <span>API</span> Docs</strong></p>
<p>There are two main websites I use to do <span>API</span> lookups. The first is <a href="http://railsapi.com">Rails Searchable <span>API</span> Doc</a>, which has online and offline searchable documentation. The second is <a href="http://apidock.com/rails">APIdock</a> which is online only, but has the ability to comment and easily compare different versions of documentation.</p>
<p><strong>Rails 3 Free Screencasts</strong></p>
<p>If you’re more of a visual learner (like me) then there are plenty of free screencasts to teach you about Rails 3. About 2 months ago I produced the <a href="http://www.rubyonrails.org/screencasts/rails3">Rails 3 Screencasts</a>, which will get you started.</p>
<p>Ryan Bates has also produced an incredible amount of Rails 3 screencasts over on <a href="http://railscasts.com/tags/27">Railscasts.com</a>. Ryan has been producing Railscasts for over 3 1/2 years, isn’t that crazy?</p>
<p>There’s also a few good free screencasts over on <a href="http://teachmetocode.com/screencasts/tag/rails-3/">Teach me to Code</a> by Charles Max Wood.</p>
<p><strong>Keeping on the Edge</strong></p>
<p>If you find yourself wondering how to keep up with all of the newest features / libraries for Rails 3, both the <a href="http://ruby5.envylabs.com">Ruby5 Podcast</a> and the <a href="http://rubyshow.com">Ruby Show</a> are going strong. Don’t listen to audio? It doesn’t matter, just subscribe to the <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Ruby5">Ruby5 <span>RSS</span> feed</a> and get links with descriptions to all the newest libraries, tutorials, and more. You might also want to checkout Peter Cooper’s new <a href="http://rubyweekly.com/">Ruby Weekly</a>, a Ruby email newsletter.</p>
<p><strong>Need to upgrade a big app to Rails 3?</strong></p>
<p>Jeremy McAnally’s <a href="http://www.railsupgradehandbook.com/">Rails 3 Upgrade Handbook <span>PDF</span></a> is just $12. There’s also a few paid screencasts for the upgrade over on <a href="http://thinkcode.tv/catalog/upgrading-rails-3/">Thinkcode.tv</a> and <a href="http://bddcasts.com/">BDDCasts</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Need a Book?</strong></p>
<p>There’s a bunch of books that will be coming out after the release, most of which you can start reading now. <a href="http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780132480345">The Rails 3 Way</a> by Obie Fernandez, <a href="http://www.manning.com/katz/">Rails 3 In Action</a> by Ryan Bigg and Yehuda Katz, <a href="http://beginningrails.com/">Beginning Rails</a> by Cloves Carneiro Jr and Rida Al Barazi, and of course the <a href="http://pragprog.com/titles/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails">Agile Web Development with Rails</a>:fourth edition by Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, and David Heinemeier Hansson.</p>
<p><strong>In conclusion</strong></p>
<p>No more complaining about lack of good documentation! Seriously. If you want even more Rails 3 content, check out the blog post by Kevin Faustino on <a href="http://adventuresincoding.com/2010/08/34-ruby-on-rails-3-resources-to-get-you-started/">34 Ruby on Rails 3 resources to get you started</a>.</p>