Sorry to 'hijack' the thread but I was wondering, as a newcomer to Ruby and Rails, what would be the best way to learn it? (without spending too much money).
It seems to me because it is such a mature framework there are a lot of Rails-specific techniques and components to learn, this seems quite daunting to me, am I correct?
The Hartl book is considered one of the best introductions, and covers all the major Rails features and conventions. It's free to read online, and there is also great support for it via Stack Overflow.
The upcoming third edition, which I hope to start publishing soon in draft form, is by far the most newbie-friendly edition yet. Indeed, it threads a rare needle: it's both easier and it covers more advanced material than previous editions. (This includes a rewritten chapter on login & authentication, an all-new section on image upload, and an all-new chapter on account activation and password resets.)
After reading the official guides (http://guides.rubyonrails.org) the next place to go is Railscasts (http://railscasts.com). Make sure you only watch the episodes for Rails version 3.2 and greater. Each episode is linked to a github project featuring complete Rails apps - read and modify those apps.
The Hartl book others have mentioned is better than the guides if you need to know what todo not just how to do it (if you are new to web development rather than switching frameworks).
I'm also not sure about Railscasts for a beginner, the most suitable ones for a beginner may be pretty out of date now although there are probably a lot of useful ones still there.
It seems to me because it is such a mature framework there are a lot of Rails-specific techniques and components to learn, this seems quite daunting to me, am I correct?