Going Ruby: Straight to IronRuby?

Question

I just started to learn Ruby and as a .Net developer, I'm wondering if I should just go straight ahead and use IronRuby, without trying some pure Ruby first.

What do you think? Will I be missing anything?

-- rauchy

Answer 1

I would use pure ruby (Matz Ruby Interpreter (MRI)) to start off. My understanding is that iron ruby is not quite ready yet.

If you are looking for a good book my current favorite (over pickaxe) is http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596516177 by matz and flanagan, the book is very concise well written paragraphs and they provide great examples (in 1.8.* and 1.9)

Enjoy! :D

Answer 2

Use pure Ruby first, IR isn't quite finished yet. Check out http://poignantguide.net/ruby/ - even though it's quite strange, it's a very good introduction

Answer 3

Ruby has a somewhat unique syntax and style that you'll pick up more quickly by working with other people's ruby code. You could certainly learn this while using IronRuby just as well as in any other implementation of the ruby language. (Although, you may run into trouble with some more obscure syntax or libraries with IronRuby; it's not a 100% complete implementation, yet.)

One interesting resource for learning idiomatic ruby is http://www.rubyquiz.com/.

Answer 4

I know this is an old question, but I'd like to say that four years later (today), the JRuby implementation is certainly far enough advanced to be worth starting with.