How to Survive Nashville Software School By Trying Real Hard part 3/3
This is final part of the three-page series on Nashville Software School tips.
Part 1 had my thoughts at the end
Part 2 had some overall tips about my experience
This will talk about some of the outside tools I used. Everything on this list I would recommend.
1. If you can, get the ebook or the Kindle version of the book. Biggest reason: There are quite a few and carrying them everyday can be, um, heavy.
2. Get Google Drive and Dropbox. I saved files, graphics, and books so I could transfer documents from my laptop to home desktop.
3. Other stuff about downloads: For Code editors: You do NOT need Dreamweaver. In fact, I would recommend you move away from Dreamweaver all together. Here is a list of editors I recommend:
Sublime Text 2 (Mac, PC, Linux free)
Coda 2 ($75, Mac App Store)
Okay, here it is. The master list of stuff I used that helped me during the full six months. I DID purchase all of these (YIKES), except the jQuery: Novice to Ninja book (I won it in a contest). But, hey, I have a great reference library now.
Javascript/JQuery: Missing Manual
Programming Ruby 1.9 (aka Pickaxe)
Pragmatic Studio Ruby Video Tutorials - Because I am video person, I looked these videos. Pricey: Yes. Worth it: Yes. You want to learn Ruby before learning Rails.
Rails (MAKE SURE THE BOOKS or VIDEOS DEAL WITH RAILS 3 or you might be misinformed and confused.)
Ruby on Rails tutorial by Michael Hartl. Best Way to Learn Rails (Note: The online book is available for free. But I recommend the video tutorial that is $125. Pricey, but very, very worth it.)
The Rspec book - You are going to learn about Test-Driven Development and pretty much every employer I've talked with use Rspec for testing. So this book is good for that.
Rails 4 in Action - This book walks you through a project using Test-Driven Development. Don't let the name fool you. This book uses the latest version of Rails (3.2.9, as of this writing). Note: This book is in prerelease, as of Dec. 2012, and is a work in progress. The next class will get more use of this book during the class than I did. But I am going this book and the Hartl tutorials now that the school has ended.
Final note: Don't be afraid to email to get my thoughts about a textbook. Also there are a TON of blogs and tutorials that will help you. Best thought I received during the class: Coding is like an open-book test. As long as your code works, it really doesn't matter where you get it from. Book, video, blog, Stack Overflow, etc.