Gaston Garcia

These days have been full of my Mac Terminal. It’s been both exciting and frustrating. I had previously used the command line quite a bit, in a brief period of my life when I decided that I was only going to use free software, and therefore used Ubuntu for like 4 months in the beginning of 2006. (This period ended basically in frustration at having to use Gimp for my graphic work as a web designer at the time.)

That time spent in Ubuntu was good none the less. I read Neil Stephenson’s “In the beginning was the command line” (which is maybe the coolest computer book). I learned to move around in my hard drive, I tried to install Apache (unsuccessfully), I tried to install MySQL (unsuccessfully), I tried to create a development environment (failed too). I learned to love VIM. I asked for help in message boards. It was a tough time, but hey, I was making it tough for myself. My all free software approach was too strict, and it wasn’t easy. (Plus it’s a habit. I’ve been a fundamentalist on almost anything I’ve decide to take on, only to have to learn to take it easy.)

So these last few days I’ve been learning Ruby. I’ve started reading Why’s “Poignant Guide to Ruby“. I also purchased Rails from Scratch part I from Peepcode. And I found the Learning Rails podcast (which is what I would recommend to a real beginner. The Peepcode screencast is of superb quality, but it’s not for a newbie. It’s so damn easy to get lost in a single keystroke when you’re really new to something. The pace of the Learning Rails podcast is more appropriate to someone who’s learning from scratch).

I’ll probably get the Meet the Command Line screencast. It’ll help me feel even more comfortable with the Command Line. And I don’t have time to waste for learning, all programmers and web developers I admire are involved in projects that require skills that go far beyond just coding HTML and CSS. SASS, HAML, Compass, Rails. It’s useful to feel comfortable moving around your computer, invoking scripts and installing stuff.

Now from these last 10 days I do have to remember something. I should expect a bit less results as I move along. Learning is a slow process and I get frustrated easily. I have to step back every once in a while and say “Alright, that didn’t work either. No problem. Do something simpler.”

Now I’ve for some reason you’re reading this and are new to programming, these are links that have been encouraging to me these days:

• I have no talent
• In the beginning was the command line
• You can teach yourself how to program