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Rating: 
Summary: Best Introduction for the New Programmer
Review: I guess a lot of people come to Ruby with a knowledge of Perl or Java or C++ or some other language, and the other Ruby titles may be better suited for them. My own programming consisted of a smattering of Javascript and Actionscript. Consequently I appreciate this book's careful descriptions and clear and plentiful examples. The book moves fast, has a light tone, and lets the pleasure of Ruby come through. I recommend it, without reservation, as the entryway into Ruby.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, Great Language!
Review: Ruby is a very cool and powerful language. If you find yourself frustated with old an ugly languages like C or C++ or if you are
a Perl programmer who thinks that Perl is hard to read (and it is, most of the time) than you should learn Ruby. And this book
is a very good starting point. It assumes no Ruby experience and explains all the basic of the great programming language. I found no erros in the book and the author is really an expert.
If you want to learn the more advenced features of Ruby consider
buying "The Ruby Way" and "Ruby Developers Guide" and "Programming Ruby: A Pragmatic Programmer's Guide"
Rating: 
Summary: Useful book marred by bad editing and egregious typos
Review: This book is marred by sloppy editing -- the devil is in the details. A casual reading turned up no less than five places where the meaning of illustrative materials or figures thwarted or contradicted the author's intent (and, in some cases, machine logic!) There is one diagram that was slapped onto the pasteboard and scanned to plate in an obvious hurry -- wiping out the top 8 pts of a 10 on 12 pts line of text. Aside from these pitfalls, the book has a chatty, conversational style guaranteed to drive advanced programmers from other disciplines (C, C++, Perl) up the wall. Since only advanced programmers can recognize the many errors, and only newbies will benefit from the chatty style, I can't really give this more than three stars, even though the author is obviously more proficient than SAMS' slapdash editing would indicate.
Rating:
Summary: Useful book marred by bad editing and egregious typos
Review: This book is marred by sloppy editing -- the devil is in the details. A casual reading turned up no less than five places where the meaning of illustrative materials or figures thwarted or contradicted the author's intent (and, in some cases, machine logic!) There is one diagram that was slapped onto the pasteboard and scanned to plate in an obvious hurry -- wiping out the top 8 pts of a 10 on 12 pts line of text. Aside from these pitfalls, the book has a chatty, conversational style guaranteed to drive advanced programmers from other disciplines (C, C++, Perl) up the wall. Since only advanced programmers can recognize the many errors, and only newbies will benefit from the chatty style, I can't really give this more than three stars, even though the author is obviously more proficient than SAMS' slapdash editing would indicate.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, Great Language!
Review: Title says it all. It's a decent book and unlike the other reviewer, I did find quite a few minor errors.
This is a good book if you found yourself scared to death of other programming languages. Ruby really takes away the hardest parts of other programming languages, but in turn requires that you memorize literally hundreds of funtions and methods! Because of this it's almost easier to read Ruby then to program it. All told, I learned a great language, but the 4 instead of 5 stars comes from the fact that the exercises at the end of the chapters were no brainers. 15 minutes of typing for the hardest ones! Maybe I should of used a more advanced book, but admittedly, I purchased the book because of the exercises.
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