For the next week, I worked on C# (using video tutorials from PluralSight).  These were very helpful, but boring, as the strategy for beginners is to go through basic language constructs.  I'm more used to a "learn by doing" approach, where the tutorial builds something and then explains the concepts we're using as we go.  That being said, I did learn a number of things, and was surprised to find that C# is a 'toned down' version of C++ (from my 20-year-old memories) but more powerful than I remember VB and Excel Macros being.  So, the concepts were fairly easy to grasp while the API is what it is.

Then, I went to move onto jQuery, but decided that the best way forward was to take the humble approach and do the JavaScript tutorial first.  Surprisingly, this was a huge benefit, as I discovered I had never really understood the underlying structures of JavaScript.  (In the years gone by, JavaScript was so clumsy that I had decided to avoid it altogether in favour of boring HTML and a page-load with every click.  In the years that I've been away, it's amazing to see how much faster and useful JavaScript (and, by extension, AJAX) has become.)

To date, I still haven't completed the jQuery videos, as I keep getting distracted by other things.  For instance, in looking into the CSS code, I discovered SCSS/SASS and thought it was awesome.  When I looked up "gradient" features, I was put onto Compass - which looked awesome but I have yet to get gradients working with Compass.  Eight hours working on Compass haven't yielded any results.  ...Groan...  Either I haven't got the API working correctly, or the "gradient" features are currently under construction... or both.

What have I learned through this whole process?

1. I learn better with people around me.  (Learning by myself, even with video tutorials, has gone against the grain of my learning style.)
2. Just because the install and 'getting started' instructions SAY that it's really easy to use, these are usually written by an expert (or even the original developer) and often don't reflect a newbie's experience.
3. Visual Studio Express can be a useful IDE, but has been significantly hobbled by Microsoft when they cut plug-in capability.  (Yes, technically 'template' plug-ins still work.  However, the plug-ins that matter, like Mindscape Web Workbench, that would have made SCSS/SASS awesome, don't.)
4. With VSE2010 hobbled, you'll need to be familiar with the DOS command line and batch files, especially if you want SCSS/SASS to work.  Very useful SCSS/SASS newbie instructions here (also good notes here and here.)
5. So, with all of the above in mind, keep a good text editor around.  I use all of these, at various times:
   - Notepad++ (Windows only)
   - VI, vim, gVIM (*nix, Windows)
   - gEdit (*nix)
   - edit (Windows command-line only, in a pinch)
   Thanks to all of you who have recommended (over and over) to use TextMate.  Now, if only I had the $$$ to get a new computer (i.e. Mac.....)

_$ rails new myapp -d postgresql -T    # use pg, don't install any tests

$ vi Gemfile
Gemfile begin: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  # you'll need to update the numbers
 source 'http://rubygems.org'

 gem 'rails', '3.1.1'
 gem 'pg', '0.11.0'
 gem 'heroku', '2.11.0'
 gem 'gravatar_image_tag', '1.0.0'
 gem 'will_paginate', '3.0.2'
 gem 'faker', '1.0.1'        # This shouldn't be here, but Heroku errors won't stop!

 gem 'jquery-rails', '1.0.16'
 
 # Gems used only for assets and not required
 # in production environments by default.
 group :assets do
   gem 'sass-rails',   '~> 3.1.4'
   gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.1.1'
   gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
 end

 group :development do
   gem 'rspec-rails', '2.7.0'
   gem 'annotate', :git => 'git://github.com/ctran/annotate_models.git'
 end
 
 group :test do
   gem 'turn', :require => false    # Pretty printed test output
   gem 'rspec-rails', '2.7.0'
   gem 'webrat', '0.7.3'
   gem 'factory_girl_rails', '1.3.0'
 end
 
 group :production do
   gem 'thin', '1.2.11'
 end
Gemfile end: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


$ bundle install
$ rails generate rspec:install
$ vi .gitignore
.gitignore begin ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     .bundle
      log/*.log
      *.log
      /tmp/
      tmp/
      .sass-cache/
      *.swp
      *~
      .project
      .DS_Store
      bin/
      public/assets/
.gitignore end ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Initial commit"
$ vi README
$ git mv README README.markdown
$ git commit -am "Improved README"

(go to GitHub and at your Dashboard create a New Repository)
$ git remote add origin git@github.com:........ (from github)
$ git push origin master

$ bundle install --binstubs

$ heroku keys          // To see what RSA keys are in the system
$ heroku keys:add  // To choose which key to use
$ heroku create myapp --stack cedar
$ git remote rm heroku
$ git remote add heroku git@heroku.com:myapp.git
$ git push heroku master
$ heroku open

Some common commands:

$ git checkout -b first_branch_name
$ rails generate controller Pages home about
$ rails g controller Users new
$ rails g model Users last_name:string first_name:string
$ rails g scaffold User name:string email:string

$ git reset --hard     # to reset and blow away all changes

$ rake db:migrate
$ rake db:test:prepare
$ heroku run rake db:migrate

$ rake db:reset

# For running RSpec with a beep at the end
$ clear; time bin/rspec spec/; beep -l 2;

# For precompiling assets (and cleaning the folder first, before you upload to Heroku)
$ clear; git rm -rf public/assets; rm -rf public/assets; bin/rake assets:precompile; beep -l 2;


# For telling "rails server" in development that you don't want pre-compiled assets
# in config/environments/development.rb, add this (on advice of StackOverflow)
config.serve_static_assets = false

Database Setup
Don't forget to setup your database!
(If you do, you'll get a PG Error that says:
      fe_sendauth: no password supplied )

To setup the database, you'll need to edit config/database.yml
to include something like this.  (Don't worry about the production data, as it will be overwritten when you upload the site to Heroku.)

database.yml begin ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# PostgreSQL. Versions 7.4 and 8.x are supported.

development:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: myapp_development
  pool: 5
  host: localhost
  port: 5432
  username: myapp
  password: myapp_password

test:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: myapp_test
  pool: 5
  host: localhost
  port: 5432
  username: myapp
  password: myapp_password

production:
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  database: myapp_production
  pool: 5
  host: localhost
  port: 5432
  username: myapp
  password: myapp_password
database.yml end ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^